Ooh Child Things'll Get Brighter
by MonsterxChild
Summary: She's just a little girl! Yeah well this little girl's got a bow and arrow. She's so tiny! Doesn't mean she doesn't know how to bring you to your knees. She needs to be protected! She's a Dixon, enough said. If there's one thing you need to know about Sunny Rae Dixon, it's that she is her Daddy's daughter.
1. Chapter 1

**Ooh Child, Things'll Get Brighter: Chapter 1**

Sunny remembered the first news reports of the outbreak, it had started with a few reports of people eating other people, her uncle had laughed real hard at that. Said the reports were bullshit and that she shouldn't worry. But those reports never stopped soon the news lady had warned everyone to stay inside with their doors locked. That these people who were eating other people were infected with an unknown disease and to not go near the infected. Her dad had decided that since the disease was so contagious that it wasn't safe for her to go to school, instead she'd stay at home with her family until the disease was under control. She'd been happy at first, no school! What kid didn't enjoy that? But the disease only got worse.

The news reports never got better, stories of the infected continued, stories of non-infected people stealing from businesses, people who were killed because a civilian thought they were infected and decided to end them before they could hurt anyone. The disease was everywhere, and no one knew what to do. That was until finally, the last report Sunny remembered before she and her family left their little home in Ellijay Georgia. They said go to Atlanta, that there was a refugee center set up. All non-infected people were welcomed, and there would be food, water, shelter, and protection from the infected. That was where her father and uncle decided to go.

"Now you listen to me Sunny Rae," Her father had started, he held her gently by the shoulders and knelt down in front of her so they were looking into each other's eyes- Sunny knew this meant he was serious- "I need you to go to your room and get your suitcase that you use when you go visit your grandpa's place. Pack only the things you need, ya hear? Only the things ya will need. Can't go bringing the whole house with us, got it?"

She nodded her head. "What about the stuff I wanna bring?" She asked. Who knew how long they'd be gone anyways? Days? Weeks? Months? There were things she didn't really _need_, but there were things she wanted.

Her dad sighed and shook his head, "Okay then, how 'bout this, get yer school pack, and you can bring whatever you want s'long as it fits in that bag got it?" She nodded at him with a grin before she sprinted off to her room to do as she was told.

As she ran into her room she immediately went to her bed to pull the suitcase out from underneath it, and put in on the bed so it'd be easy for her to see what all she could bring with her. What do you need when you're going to a refugee camp anyways? Well she figured it'd be like camping with her dad and uncle in the woods so she decided to pack like that, but for longer.

Pushing open her drawers and closet she immediately pulled out numerous amounts of underwear and socks. Dad always said your shirt and pants could be as dirty as the ground itself and you'd be fine, but if your underwear or socks were dirty you'd be miserable, so she made sure she had plenty. Once that drawer was empty she began pulling down shirts from their hangers, before dumping them on the bed. She quickly separated her camping/hunting clothes from her school clothes- although to be honest, she often wore her camping clothes to school, because they were more comfy- she had too many shirts, there probably wouldn't be enough room for her extra pair of boots or any of the shirts she'd stolen from her dad and uncle over the years. With a sigh she shoved the school clothes to the floor and began separating the camping clothes. She decided to stick to darker colors, blacks and navy blue, a few grey shirts here and there, and then quickly dumped the others on the floor. She knew that Georgia summers were extremely hot, so she made sure to stuff a few tank tops in among the shirts before she quickly moved onto pants. She decided to only grab two pairs of shorts, since she rarely wore them when she camped. Finally she was down to the last few things she knew she would need for this trip. A pair of old boots she always wore when she went camping, her mother's old college sweatshirt- she knew at nights it could get cold- and her small knife collection. Not many kids could say they had that! With a grin she zipped up the suit case and left it by her door, now came the hard part: What she _wanted_ to bring.

First things first, she grabbed her school bag and dumped it out in the corner of her room not caring where any of the papers fell or where the pencils rolled off to. Man that felt good, it wasn't often a kid could just dump their school bag on the ground and not care what happens to all the papers or notebooks inside. Like the suitcase she set the bag on her bed and began looking around her room to decide what to bring. She grabbed a picture of her mom and dad off her nightstand and immediately stuffed it in the bag. No way was she leaving that behind. She figured it would be pointless to bring any cd's with her since she knew she couldn't bring the cd player with her, and her dad wouldn't let her play any of her music in his truck anyways. Instead she walked over to her small book collection and grabbed the last Harry Potter book- she'd just finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and there was no way she wasn't going to finish the series- and her newest book, Lord of the Rings. One of her older friends had read it and said it was amazing, so she decided that she would as well. She grabbed her Atlanta Falcons beanie her grandpa had gotten her for her last birthday and stuffed in in the bag as well. She had a little more space left and decided to grab one more thing before taking her stuff to her dad for approval.

Glancing around the room she wasn't really sure what to grab. Her blanket? One of the few stuffed animals on her bed? What? Finally her eyes settled on the box on the floor next to her bed and a grin stretched across her face. How on earth could she forget those!? Rushing over she pulled the lid of the box and began shifting through her collection of comic books. When she was really little she'd have to go with her dad to work, and right next door to the shop he worked at was a comic book store. Every day his boss with give her some money to go and buy one to read for the day, and slowly she'd began her own little collection. Her favorite heroes were the ones that used arrows like her dad! Like Hawkeye, or Green Arrow! Those two had been the cause of her obsession with the weapon, and her dad was only too happy to teach her- although he kept saying the crossbow was better. So with a grin she scanned through her collection before grabbing a few of her favorites and putting them in her bag. With one last glance around the room she said her goodbyes, after all when would be the next time she got to see her home?

"Got everything you need?" Her dad asked as he helped her lift her suitcase.

She nodded her head enthusiastically, her dirty blonde hair waving around her face. "Yup! S'all there!"

"Mhmm." Her dad hummed as he looked down at her with a critical eyes, "And what about your bathroom stuff?" He asked her.

Her smile faded as she realized that she had forgotten that. She glanced down at her suitcase wondering if she would be able to stuff it in there, but her thoughts were cut off by her uncle's loud laugh. She looked up at him as he came out of the bathroom with a baggy filled with her bathroom things, "Don't you worry, Sun-Beam, your Uncle Merle's got you's covered. Now wha'd'ya say?" He asked with a grin.

Sunny grinned up at him, "Thank you!" She wrapped her arms around his waist, and buried her face in his stomach. She was the only one he'd ever let do that.

"Ain't no problem sunshine. Now c'mon baby brotha' time to get the ball rolling we got ourselves quite the drive if we want to make it to Atlanta 'fore they decide not to take anyone else in!"

Her dad grunted as he grabbed their bags and walked out the door to put them in the back of his old truck. Sunny sent her Uncle one last smile before running off after him to get into the passenger side of the truck. She watched as her dad and uncle loaded up the truck before her dad went over to the shed and brought something back with him. She tried to see what it was but he kept it hidden from view as he opened the driver's side door. "Now, it ain't your birthday yet, but I figure, since yer grandparents already gave you your birthday gift it wouldn't hurt to give you yours now, good time as any." She grinned happily at him, so excited that she forgot the whole reason they were leaving in the first place, "Now close yer eyes…" He instructed. Sunny did as she was told, closing her eyes and waiting for him to give her permission to open them. She knew she couldn't peek, her dad had a weird sixth sense about stuff like that and he'd know instantly if she did. She felt something light being pressed into her lap, but continued to keep her eyes closed. "A'right, open up."

She looked down at her lap to see a wooden bow sitting there! She grinned so wide her face hurt, but she didn't care. Finally after all these years of pestering her dad for her own bow, she finally got one!-She'd always have to use his crossbow, and only a handful of times did she get to use an actual bow. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She said quickly as she grabbed the bow in her hands to examine it.

Something heavy fell into her lap next, startling her out of her admiration of her bow. "Thing's just a fancy tooth-pick if you ain't got these ta go with it." Her uncle said with a smirk. In her lap sat a quiver filled with arrows just waiting to be shot.

She looked between the two of them, "Thank you! I promise I'll practice every day until I'm even better than Hawkeye!" Her dad and uncle rolled their eyes at this. 'Course she'd say something like that.

The three took a moment to enjoy the happy moment. Sure the brothers didn't agree on a lot of things, but there was one thing they'd never disagree on, and that was nothing mattered as much as their Sunny Rae.

* * *

**So I just started this and I'm not going to post anything else with this for a bit, I just want to see everyone's response to this to decide if I should keep writing it or not (So reviews would definitely help). I know I sorta abandoned my Teen Wolf story, but freaking Jeff Davis is just making it impossible to work with you know? **

**Anyways this story will more than likely stick to the TV canon, a few things tweaked- taken out or added- but overall it'll follow along the same timeline as the show.**

**So let me know what you think of this story if I should continue or not! Reviews are appreciated! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Ooh Child Things'll Get Brighter: Chapter2**

They'd never made it to Atlanta…

No they'd never gotten into the city, because someone had decided to bomb it instead. Sunny had no idea why anyone would ever do that. Wasn't the city supposed to be safe? Were the news people lying? Or did they really think Atlanta was the best place for the people of Georgia. Whatever it was, Sunny was glad she and her family never made it there.

Instead they'd wound up with a group of other refugees. There were mostly adults, but there were some kids too, not that Sunny talked to them much. There was Carl, he seemed okay, and Sophia, she was really quiet, but nice none the less. The other kids were a little annoying, Eliza and her little brother who's name Sunny never bothered to learn. It was really just the five of them, but Sunny had no interest in becoming their friends. No, their moms wouldn't let them go anywhere near her dad or uncle, so why should she go near them? Her dad would always tell her to go play with them, but she'd just grab her bow and some arrows and practice her aim instead. She'd need to learn how to use it quick if she was gonna be able to protect anything.

But sometimes that didn't always work. Sometimes her dad would take the bow and arrows and put them away and tell her to go play, other times he'd make her sit with the other kids and their moms and do school problems. Which she thought was stupid, why do homework when there was no more schools? She knew how to read and write and she could add, subtract, multiply and divide, why did she need to know anything else? Not like knowing all the Presidents of the United States was gonna help her any these days. But when she told her dad this he'd just frown and tell her that if she didn't do the school work she wouldn't get her bow and arrows back, so she'd given in.

They'd been with the group for about a month now, others joining them over time. They always say that there's safety in numbers, but what they forget to mention is that the more people there were, the more supplies that were needed and there were more mouths to feed. Her dad being the only hunter besides her uncle, made it his duty to provide fresh meat for the group, despite the fact that they never thanked him for it- something Sunny hated! He was gearing up for another one of his trips and this time Sunny made it her mission not to be left behind by him again.

"I wanna come." She told him bluntly- no use beating around the bush with her dad, he was a to the point kind of guy-, it was the night before he'd be leaving and the two of them were sitting by their own little fire that was away from everyone else's, her uncle off doing who knows what. "I'm really good with my bow now! I wanna come with you!" She insisted, hoping that she could finally go on a hunting trip with her dad, just like they did before all the infected people.

Her dad stared at her for a long moment, as if he were sizing her up. To be honest he had noticed her aim with the bow had been improving in the month that they'd been here, and she'd used to go on hunting trips with him all the time back before the world went to shit. She knew how to act in the forest. Besides Merle had decided that he was going on the run for supplies with a few other people from the group. He wasn't gonna ask one of the women here to watch over his kid, especially with the way they looked at him. "Alright." He agreed simply stunning Sunny for a moment.

After taking a moment to let his decision register in her brain, Sunny's face split into a smile. She let out a squeal of excitement, and threw her arms around his neck for a hug, "Thank you daddy! Thank you!"

Her dad grunted at her, and wound his arms around her back returning the hug. They stayed like that for a few minutes, Sunny settling down in her father's lap with her head resting on his shoulder. The two sat in comfortable silence while they quietly watched the fire. Tomorrow she'd get to spend time with her dad just like they used to, before all the infected tried to hurt her or her family.

* * *

The two of them had been following the deer's tracks nearly all day. They didn't have much luck with game the first day they were out there, a few squirrels and a rabbit, definitely not enough to feed their camp, so her dad had decided to stay out one more day to try and find more. The sun had just begun to rise when she'd spotted the deer tracks on the ground. Her dad had been so happy when she'd pointed them out, he'd ruffled her hair just like before when he was proud of something she did. "We find this deer Sunny Rae and we'll be set for days!" He'd said happily, Sunny grinning right along with him.

Luckily for the two of them the deer seemed to be already heading towards their camp at the rock quarry. Her dad said they'd follow it for now and once it started to veer away from their camp they'd shoot it so they wouldn't have to carry it as far

It was about mid-morning when the deer tracks started to move away from the camp, as if it sensed people out there, the two hunters moved quickly to catch up with the deer before it moved to far. The two had tracked it to a small clearing where the deer was grazing on the grass that was there. Everything seemed still and quiet. Peaceful.

Sunny waited quietly for her father to take his aim and shoot it, but instead she watched in awe as he gestured for her to take aim. Deciding not to question him she silently pulled an arrow out of her quiver and knocked the arrow. Slowly she stood up from her crouched position and took aim. She knew if she missed this the camp wouldn't get much food, they might go hungry. Taking a deep breath she pulled the string back, and just as she was about to let the arrow fly she and the deer locked eyes, as if it sensed that she was about to take it's life, and it bolted.

Letting out a quiet curse she knew her dad would normally scold her for she released an arrow and quickly drew another, her dad beside her also stood up and let his own bolt fly. Each arrow hitting their mark though none of them were a true killing blow. Sunny sighed in defeat, not only had she missed, but she'd lost two of her own arrows and one of her dad's.

"Don't worry. Deer's injured, won't get far 'fore it collapses from exhaustion and pain." Her dad told her. "All's we gotta do is track it down, an' put it out of it's misery, yeah?" Sunny smiled up at him and nodded her head in agreement. "A'right your deer, you track it."

"Okay!" She agreed quickly and followed after the deer's frantic tracks. The two followed them, it seemed as if the deer was heading back to their camp despite the fact that people were there. She guessed she and her dad were the greater threat to the deer than their camp was.

She could tell she was close as the trees around her became more and more familiar. Hopefully the deer hadn't run through camp, someone else might shoot it and say they caught the deer. It was her kill, even though her dad did help with most of it, but still, she'd be the one to get the credit! "Should be close." Her dad said as he pointed down at the tracks, "looks like the thing's about to collapse." She too looked down at the tracks to examine them. They weren't clear prints like the ones they'd found early this morning, instead they were smeared, some pushing further into the dirt than others, as if the deer were walking on new legs. "Should be right about here." He mumbled.

Sunny grinned as she picked up her pace, if she was right about where she was at right now she should be coming into a clearing right…about…now!

As she turned the corner around some rocks she was greeted not by the sight of her deer, but the barrel of a gun. Her eyes widened in panic as she scrambled backwards, the only thing she could think was that this must be how the deer felt when it'd spotted her aiming her arrow at it. "Oh,Jesus!" one of the men in the clearing gasped.

"Hey!" Her dad's angry shout drew everyone's attention away from her and the man with the gun, "You best get that thing away from my daughter!" He warned. Sunny let out a sigh of relief when the man, Shane she finally realized, pulled the gun away from her.

"Sorry Sunny." He apologized.

Sunny straightened herself up and glared lightly at the man, "S'okay, just don't do it again." She warned him trying to sound tough like her dad. A few others behind him chuckled at her 'tough guy' attitude. That little glare she gave him was an echo of her father's.

"Son of a bitch." Her dad sighed as he walked further into the clearing, Sunny immediately following him. "That's our deer!" He cried out.

Sunny furrowed her eyebrows before looking around the clearing to see the deer her father was talking about laying on the ground dead, with three arrows sticking out of it. It was just like she remembered, except now it had a big chunk missing out of it's neck, one of the infected lying next to it, dead. Sunny had never gotten to see any of the infected up close, she'd only seen them from far away as they lumbered around. Her dad and uncle knew a lot of the back roads throughout Georgia, and they figured it'd be safest to stick to them while traveling to Atlanta, and once they'd joined the other survivors at the rock quarry there hadn't been many roaming around the forest to see either.

"Look at it all gnawed on!" Her dad growled as he walked up next to her and the infected. He wasn't angry, nah he was just upset 'cause they'd been tracking it all day. He started kicking the body of the infected, "By this filthy, disease-bearing, motherless, poxy bastard!" Sunny's eyes widened. She knew her dad swore a lot, but usually not in front of her.

"Calm down son, that's not helping anything." Dale, one of the older men at camp, told him as he glanced over at Sunny as if to remind her dad that she was there.

Her dad glanced over at her as she started poking the body with a nearby stick. "What do you know about it old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond'?" Sunny frowned at her dad, she liked Dale's hat… it reminded her of grandpa. Her dad sighed and turned to Sunny, "Get away from that thing Sunny Rae." He warned as he pulled the rope with all their game they'd hunted from over his shoulder, "Here, take this and go find your Uncle. Get his lazy ass to help you skin 'em."

Sunny did as she was told and quickly ran over to grab the game they did manage to catch, her dad would figure out what to do with the deer she decided, and headed back towards camp to find her uncle.

"Uncle Merle!" She called out as she emerged from the tree line, "Me and daddy are back! We caught a bunch of squirrel! Dad says you gotta help me skin 'em!" She called out as she reached her family's tent. "Uncle Merle?" She called out again. Maybe he was trying to sleep and ignoring her. Well she wouldn't let him get away with that! She gently set the string of game on the ground before unzipping the tent door and sticking her head in, "Uncle Merle!" She called again. He wasn't in there. She frowned before backing out of the tent and zipping it back up. She glanced around their little area for her Uncle but he wasn't there. Grabbing the rope of game she walked back over to the main part of camp and up to Glenn. He was nice to her, even though her Uncle liked to make fun of him cause he was Asian. She thought it was cool that he was different, but her uncle thought it was funny. "Have you seen my Uncle Merle?" She asked him. She knew Glenn had gone of the run with him, Glenn always went on runs! One time he even brought her and the other kids some candy he'd managed to find!

Glenn looked down at her with wide eyes as he opened and closed his mouth, "I-uh, um. I…" He glanced over at some of the people who'd gathered around.

"Sunny Rae!" Her dad called out as he walked into camp, "Where's that uncle of yours?" He asked.

Sunny turned away from Glenn to look at her father. She shrugged her shoulders, "He's not in the tent." She supplied.

Her dad frowned, "Merle!" He called out. Hopefully he'd have an easier time finding him than she did. "Merle! Get your ugly ass out here!" Sunny giggled at that, while her dad sent her a playful wink. "Got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up!" Still there was no reply.

"Daryl!" Shane called out as he walked up to her dad, Sunny felt uneasy as the rest of the group slowly started to gather, as if they were waiting for something to go down. "Just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you and Sunny."

Her dad put an arm over Sunny's shoulder and turned the two to face him. "About what?" He asked, his hand on her shoulder gripping tighter by the second.

"About Merle." Sunny held her breath as Shane walked up to them. Even she could tell he wouldn't look her dad in the eye. "There was a uh, there was a problem in Atlanta."

It felt as if all the air had escaped from Sunny's lungs as Shane told them this. She could feel tears gathering in her eyes, and quickly turned away to bury her face in her father's side so no one would see her cry. She was tough! She was... but it was her Uncle Merle, surely she could still be tough even if she cried about losing him?

The grip on her shoulder, despite how tight it was, brought her comfort. Her dad was here, she still had him at least. "He dead?" her dad asked quietly.

"We're not sure." Sunny's eyes snapped back to Shane her eyes instantly drying up. How could they not be sure if he was dead? If he wasn't dead he'd be here! He wouldn't leave her or her dad behind, no way!

Her dad seemed to feel the same way as he immediately let go of Sunny's shoulder and took a step forward towards Shane angrily. Her dad's face was getting scary. He only ever got this way when her Uncle came home acting all funny and his eyes lookin' weird. "He either is or he ain't!"

Shane took a step back as her dad stalked forwards. "No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." An unfamiliar man said as he walked forward, drawing her dad's attention away from Shane.

"Who are you?" Her dad demanded, his glare now locked on the new comer.

"Rick Grimes." He introduced. Grimes…That was Carl's last name, maybe they were related?

"Rick Grimes, you got something you want to say to me?" Her dad pressed.

"Your brother was a danger to us all." Rick explained, his voice flat and even, giving away no emotion, as if he'd recited it to himself plenty of times. "So I hand-cuffed him on a roof, to a piece of metal. He's still there." Sunny felt her stomach drop. No way. No. Not her Uncle Merle. Sure he got in trouble a lot before all this, but there's no way he did something bad enough to be handcuffed to a roof and left there!

Her dad turned away from the new man, and gently rubbed his hand over her hair, probably trying to comfort himself just as much as he was trying to comfort her. "Hold on." He mumbled, Sunny could see the tears in his eyes and felt them in her own. But she knew she couldn't let them fall. She had to be tough, just like her daddy and uncle Merle. "Let me process this." He gently stroked her head one more time before turning back around to face Rick Grimes. "You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there!?"

"Yeah." Rick couldn't meet her father's gaze, instead he looked down to the ground, everything about his stance screaming guilty.

Sunny could see her dad taking deep, angry breaths. He grabbed the string of squirrels that was nearby and tossed them at Rick, and then went to lunge at him, but Shane pushed her dad out of the way causing him to land in the dirt. He grabbed one of his hunting knives out of it sheath and pushed his way back to his feet.

Sunny watched in stunned silence as her dad swung the knife around wildly. Shane and Rick were quick to restrain him; that was what brought Sunny out of her stunned silence as her dad was forced to the ground in a choke hold. This was…this was! What was the word for it again!? Police brutality! That's it! Police brutality! She'd learned the term from watching tv with her friends back before this, plus Uncle Merle always said stuff like that when he was explaining a story to her dad after he'd been away for a while. "You best let me go!" Her dad shouted.

It wasn't fair! Two on one, and no one was stepping forward to help her dad! They were wrong! They left her uncle on a roof, trapped like an animal, and no one thought it was wrong! Sunny let loose one of her own screams before running at Shane and jumping on his back, her little arms wrapped around his neck as she tried to get him to let go of her dad.

She heard a few people yelling at her and a pair of hands trying to pull her off, but she just wrapped her arms tighter around his neck and locked her legs around his waist. She felt them tug harder and decided to latch her teeth into Shane's shoulder so she'd have a better grip.

Shane let out a pained cry as her teeth dug in, "Get her off!" He shouted to someone. Sunny would grin if her mouth wasn't full of Shane's shoulder. She didn't get why he was acting like it hurt so bad, not like she was drawing blood or anything.

She felt someone pinch her side and let out a yelp of surprise, releasing Shane's shoulder in the process.

"You hurt my kid I swear to god!" Her dad warned with a growl.

More hands were grabbing at her now, pulling her off of Shane. "No!" She screamed, "He's hurtin' my daddy! He's hurtin' him! It's not fair!" She yelled. She continued to struggle as she was passed over to T-dog, and Glenn, each of them holding on tightly to her arms as she struggled.

Finally they let her go as Shane let her dad out of the choke hold. She immediately rushed over to him and threw herself into his arms. "What I did was not on a whim." Rick explained while her dad held her close while he panted. "Your brother does not work, or play well with others."

"It's not Rick's fault." T-Dog said as he came forward from where he and Glenn had held onto Sunny. "I had the key, I dropped it."

"You couldn't pick it up!?" Her dad demanded, while Sunny stared at T-Dog in disbelief. Her uncle was mean to him too, just like Glenn, but she liked him too! He was funny! He was nice! Why wouldn't he just pick the key up?

"Well, I dropped it down a drain." Oh…

Her dad scoffed, and carefully pushed himself to his feet with Sunny still cradled in his arms, "If it's supposed to make me feel better it don't."

"Well maybe this will." Her dad turned to face T-Dog, "Look I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him." Sunny lifted her head off her dad's shoulder and looked up at him hopefully. Did that mean Uncle Merle was ok?

"It's gotta count for something." Rick tried to reason.

Her dad glared at the two of them and shook his head. "To hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is, so's I can go get him."

"I wanna go too…" Sunny mumbled to him. Her dad glanced down at her briefly and shook his head.

"Not now baby girl, not now." He murmered. Sunny pouted, but listened to her father.

"He'll show you." Lori, Carl's mom said, her eyes never leaving Rick as she spoke. "Isn't that right?"

Rick stared at Lori, and then looked around at the rest of the group before turning his eyes back to her and her dad, "I'm going back." He announced.

Her dad said nothing, instead he just walked away back towards their little camp site with Sunny still in his arms.

The two were quiet until he finally set her down in front of their tent. "I wanna come with you to save Uncle Merle…" She said quietly as her dad began gathering things he'd need to find her Uncle Merle.

He stopped what he was doing to look at her and sighed. "I know ya do. Trust me I do." He told her as he knelt down in front of her. Oh no, not his 'I need you to just listen to me' stance. "Sunny Rae, you are the only person that I would want to come with me to look for yer Uncle, but it's too dangerous. Hunting in the forest together is one thing, but searching a city full of geeks is another."

She stared her father in the eye as she listened to him, "But they ain't gonna watch yer back! They already left Uncle Merle! What if they leave you too?" She cried softly, her voice coming out more of a whine than usual.

Her dad smiled sadly at that, as if the same thought went through his mind, "If that happens then ya got my permission to shoot every single one of these sons a' bitches, got it?" She nodded her head with a sad smile. "But you don't gotta worry 'bout that cause there ain't nothing on this green earth that will ever stop me from getting back to you, ya hear me?" Sunny gave him another watery smile before she leaned forward and hugged him. "I'll be back alright? You just stick with these folks until then, you got my permission to keep your bow and arrows with you the entire time I'm gone got it?" she nodded her head quickly, usually he didn't want her to carry it with her everywhere she went in case she broke it or somehow lost it- like she'd ever let that happen. "Good, now come help me grab some things for this little rescue mission." She giggled and quickly dove into his tent to help him do just that.

Her dad would be fine. He was strong, and smart. He'd find her Uncle and come back and get her and then the three of them would go somewhere else. Somewhere where they didn't trap you on a roof where geeks could get you.

* * *

**So I got a pretty good response to this story, and figured I'd go for it. Reviews are much appreciated, questions welcomed, to be honest reviews are what motivate me to write more, and for some strange reason when I see people not from the US read the story I get really excited not sure why (I'm from the US to see someone from Poland is reading my story just gets me pumped.)**

**Anyways, I'm just gonna say this now updates probably won't be regular, if you guys want me to do a quick recap at the beginning of each chapter I'd be happy to do that, you just got to let me know. Classes start on the 25th for me this month and me and my friend have yet to find an apartment to live in so I might actually be living in a trailer for the first couple of months of school until we can find a place to live so it will be pretty hard to update but I'll do my best!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ooh Child Things'll Get Brighter: Chapter 3**

Sunny spent the rest of the day glaring at anybody she set her eyes on. She knew the only people that actually liked her Uncle were herself and her dad, but that didn't mean that these people should be happy that he was gone, possibly _dead_. No, none of these people cared about her family and she could tell by the looks on their faces.

"Stupid rednecks." She stopped when she heard that. Turning her head she saw Carl and the other kids huddled around each other as if they were playing. Sophia and the Morales kids looked uneasy, while Carl held her gaze with a glare.

"What'd you say?" She asked using the most dangerous tone she could muster. She'd heard people say that about her and her family before, usually it was said mockingly, but never with this much menace.

"I said, 'Stupid rednecks'." Carl repeated slowly, as if she were stupid and couldn't understand him. As if she were the 'stupid redneck' he claimed her to be. He pushed himself to his feet and walked towards her until the two were face to face. Carl only slightly taller, since he was a year older than herself.

Sunny's own glare deepened as she stared the boy down. She'd always hated that name. Hated it. She wasn't just gonna stand there and take it either. No, she'd have to get mean. Mean like Uncle Merle. Sure her daddy was scary when he was angry, but her Uncle Merle could scare the devil back to hell when he was angry. "Ya got a problem with me?" She growled dangerously, never taking her eyes away from his. She'd seen dogs do something like this back home. They'd be growling at each other, but the first one to look away was the one that gave up. She figured it was the same thing.

She could see the hesitation in his eyes, but also the determination. "Your stupid redneck dad, and uncle are the reason my dad has to go back to the city!" He accused while trying to stand up straighter so he'd tower over her even more.

Sunny wouldn't let the height difference bother her, plenty of people were as tall as, or even taller than her dad, and he was still stronger than them. Besides, Carl was all gangly, and while she wasn't much better off, she'd at least spent most of her days running around in the woods, climbing trees, and helping her dad carry game back. She knew she was stronger than him. "If your stupid police man daddy hadn't handcuffed my uncle to a roof no one would have to go back into the city." She sneered. She stepped closer to him, forcing her way into his personal space with a snarl on her lips. "You don't know shit about my family."

"Hey what's going on!?" A voice demanded before Sunny felt someone's hand grip her shoulder and pull her back from Carl's face.

It was Shane, Lori, and Dale. "He started it." She shrugged.

"No I didn't!" Carl denied immediately while Sunny narrowed her eyes. She hated liars.

"Yes you did." She insisted taking a moment to glance at the adults around her. Lori and Shane would probably take Carl's side no matter what she said, but maybe Dale would hear her out. He seemed like a fair guy. "You said 'stupid rednecks' I even asked you what you said and you repeated it."

His face scrunched up and he turned to his mom. "No I didn't! I was playing with the other kids and she just came over and started being mean."

Sunny could only scoff as Lori glanced between the two of them and then set a stern gaze on her. "Sunny you should apologize."

"I ain't lyin'." She insisted. "An besides, even if I was, _which I'm not_, you're not my momma, I don't got to listen to you." She turned her glare back to Carl, "Yer a lyin' sack o' shit."

"Hey!" Shane snapped. He reached out and grabbed Sunny by the arm. The grip was painful, but Sunny wouldn't let it show. She had to be strong. She was right, she knew it, and Carl knew it, he just wouldn't admit it. "You don't talk to people like that!" He scolded.

"You ain't my daddy neither!" She growled as she tried to pull her arm away, but his grip was still too tight. "I don't got to listen to you! Either of you!"

"Why don't you two have a talk with Carl, and I'll talk to Sunny here, huh?" Dale suggested. Sunny gave him a confused glare, but he simply smiled to reassure her. Shane and Lori shared a glance, and together they lead Carl away. Lori mumbling something about negligent fathers.

"He was lying." Sunny insisted weakly as Dale lead her over to the RV.

"I bet he was." Dale agreed.

Sunny's head shot up at this, her eyes widening in surprise, "You believe me!?"

Dale chuckled at her reaction. "Yes, though I don't think the language you used was appropriate." He scolded her gently.

She pouted at that, "No worse than what he said." She grumbled.

Dale's eyes softened as he looked down at the little girl. "What he said might have been hurtful Sunny, but that doesn't make it okay to do the same. An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind." She giggled at that. It was such an old saying, even she knew that one! "There's that pretty smile! Just like a ray of sunshine. Guess that's how you got your name."

She nodded her head in agreement, "My momma named me! Daddy says she used to call me her personal ray of sunshine come to brighten her day! Specially when she was in the hospital…" She could barely remember what her momma looked like. Without her pictures, all she could remember was that boring white hospital room where she'd go everyday with her daddy to visit.

Dale patted her head gently pulling her out of her thoughts. "Amy and Andrea are going to go fishing in a bit, why don't you go see if you can go help them?" He suggested.

Sunny thought about it for a second before shaking her head. "I don't like fishing. I'll see if I can get some squirrels from here instead."

He nodded his head in agreement. "Alright, just keep your distance from Carl, alright? Shane and Lori too if you can."

She giggled, but agreed before running off, pulling her bow off of her back and an arrow out of the quiver as she went.

Dale chuckled as he watched the little girl stand on the edge of their clearing, bow at the ready. She was one little hellion when she wanted to be…

* * *

"I'm sorry Carl lied." A quiet voice pulled Sunny away from her searching of squirrels.

She turned around to see Sophia, one of the other kids at the camp. She was quiet, normally didn't talk much. Her dad was really mean from what Sunny could tell. "It ain't your fault, so you shouldn't apologize." She told the girl with a shrug. "Carl's the one who's gotta apologize."

Sophia looked down at her shoes as she toed the dirt nearby. "He's just scared his dad's not gonna come back. He thought he was dead this whole time and when he finally gets his dad back, he might lose him again."

Sunny rolled her eyes. "Doesn't give him an excuse to be mean to me, and then lie about it." She eyed the girl standing meekly before her. "Why you defending him anyways?"

"He's my friend-"

"So?" Sunny scoffed and shook her head. "He's wrong. He needs to man up and apologize himself, and not make his friend do it for him. Don't apologize for someone else, especially if it's not your fault got it?" Sophia wouldn't meet her eyes, but nodded none the less. Sunny could tell the other girl was dejected, and felt a little bad for her, maybe she just wanted more friends? She could relate to that. "Wanna help me skin these squirrels?" She offered. She didn't normally like hanging out with other kids, but if they were doing something she liked she didn't see the problem with it.

Sophia's head perked up at the offer, a hesitant smile on her face. "I don't really know how…" She mumbled.

Sunny just rolled her eyes, "Then I'll teach ya, c'mon!" She lead the other girl over to her family's tent area and began grabbing all the things she'd need, some buckets and two knives, before walking back over to one of the small fire pits and settling herself on the ground. "I'm gonna warn ya now, skinnin' animals is messy, and kinda gross, but you get used to it." Sophia sat herself on the ground next to her and listened to everything Sunny said with rapt attention as she explained the ins and outs of skinning and gutting a squirrel.

Dale watched from the top of the RV, glad that the little girls were being friendly, and Sunny may have finally found a friend in the group.

* * *

The rest of the day was pretty boring once she and Sophia finished skinning the squirrels. (They were pretty messed up, but it was fun and Amy and Andrea had caught more than enough fish to make up for it.) Jim had some sort of nervous breakdown and had to be tied to a tree. Mr. Morales had come up with a way to have a bigger fire, and she hadn't been forced into school work like Carl and Sophia since her dad wasn't around! Pretty good day in her book- aside from her family not being there to enjoy it with her.

It was dark out now, and the fish had finally finished frying. Everyone was gathering around to get some to eat by the fire. Sunny was grabbing a piece of fish to put on her plate to go sit down with when a voice stopped her, "I'm sorry I was mean to you earlier today, and then lied about it." She turned to see a guilty looking Carl with Lori behind him her hands on his shoulders.

Sunny simply stared at him hoping her silent gaze made him uncomfortable. It did. "Aren't you going to say something back?" Lori noticed Carl's nervousness and prompted Sunny to reply.

"I don't got nothing to say. He was mean and then lied. Don't got to forgive him." She shrugged and raised an eyebrow.

Lori's eyes narrowed at the little girl. "Sunny, Carl is apologizing to you, don't you think you should apologize too?"

Sunny just scoffed. "Why? I didn't do nothin' wrong."

"You called me a lying sack of shit!" Carl protested.

"Well weren't you?" Sunny challenged, getting annoyed with him again. "Maybe I shouldn't have cursed, but I didn't do nothin' wrong. And I'm not gonna forgive you for saying what you said and then lying cause it's not okay!" She took a deep breath to calm herself, "But I accept your apology so long as you don't do it again, deal?" She grumbled.

Carl nodded his head begrudgingly. "Deal." He agreed.

Sunny nodded her head and turned back to where everyone was sitting around the fire, and managed to find an open spot by Dale.

* * *

Everyone was smiling and laughing, there was enough fish for everyone to have more than one piece. The adults were drinking beers, while the kids got their sodas, it was an overall happy moment. Sunny just wished her dad and Uncle could be there with her to enjoy it too.

"I've got to ask you man, it's been driving me crazy." Sunny lifted her head wondering what question was driving Morales 'crazy' as he put it.

"What?" Dale chuckled.

"That watch." Morales pointed at the watch snugly resting against Dale's wrist.

Dale looked down at his watch with a fond smile, "What's wrong with my watch?"

"I see you every day, the same time, winding that thing like a village priest saying mass." Morales explained.

Others nodded their heads in agreement, "I've wondered this myself." Jacqui added.

Dale shook his head, "I'm missing the point."

"Unless I've misread the signs, the world seems to have come to an end." Jacqui elaborated, a couple of others chuckling. "At least hit a speed bump for a good long while."

"But then there's you every day winding that stupid watch." Morales finished.

"Time! It's important to keep track, isn't it? The days at least." Dale asked. "Don't you think? Andrea? Back me up here."

"I think it is." Sunny agreed, smiling up at him.

"Thank you Sunny, see someone gets it." He sighed and looked down at his wristwatch. "I like what, um, a father said to a son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down through generations. He said, 'I give you mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine, or my father's before me; I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment, now and then, and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it.'"

Everyone was quiet for a moment, just smiling. Sunny didn't really get it, but she guessed whatever it meant, it was something happy. "You're so weird." Amy muttered affectionately while everyone else let out laughs and chuckles.

Laughing lightly Dale defended himself, "It's not me, it's Faulkner. William Faulkner. Maybe my bad paraphrasing."

"Where you going?" Andrea asked as Amy got up quietly.

The girl turned to her sister with an annoyed frown, "I have to pee. Jeez, you try to be discreet around here..." She grumbled as she walked off towards the RV. Sunny giggled, she could understand that. Even before all this, when she and her dad would go on weekend trips hunting she wasn't allowed anywhere away from him unless she told him exactly where she was going and what she was doing.

Everyone continued eating their fish, still in a happy mood after Dale's confusing little speech. Everyone was so happy, she just wished her family could be here to enjoy it too. "We're out of toilet paper!" Amy called out as she pushed open the RV door. Sunny turned just in time to see the geek reach out and grab her arm and take a bite out of it. She let out a startled gasp while Amy screamed. It seemed as if that was the trigger that sent everything in motion. The moment the scream left Amy's lips geeks were everywhere! Thinking quickly, Sunny pushed her plate off her lap. and grabbed her bow and quiver from the ground and bolted towards the RV. She'd kept it close to her all day just like her dad had said she could. Gun shots, and screams echoed around her. She ducked and dodged the hands that reached for her as she finally made it to the back of the RV, and without wasting a moment she climbed the ladder and knocked an arrow. She concentrated on her aim, only one walker at a time would be able to come up that ladder, and she'd have a height advantage on it.

The geeks seemed endless, pouring out of the tree line and into the camp. Only Dale and Shane had guns, some were screaming and running for their lives while others tried to kill the geeks with baseball bats and pieces of metal. She aimed at the geeks that were away from people, afraid she'd accidentally hit someone living instead.

She heard growling closer than any of the others and turned her head in time to see one of the geeks making its way up the ladder. Its upper body lay on the top of the RV while its arms reached out to her. Sunny pulled her knife from her belt sheath, not wanting to waste an arrow on one that she could easily kill with her knife, and carefully walked towards it, staying out of its arms reach. The thing was too stupid to think of taking another step up the ladder or pushing itself up, instead it just stretched it's arms out as far as they could and clawed at the air. Taking a deep breath, she aimed, and then lunged with the knife, being careful not to accidentally throw herself off the top of the RV and into the waiting geeks below.

The knife sunk into the eye of the geek with a sickening squish, the thing falling back and on top of a passing by geek. Sunny pushed herself back up and back over to the edge of the RV, forcing herself not to throw up, and again concentrate on killing the geeks below. More gunshots echoed around their quarry, and Sunny noticed four people making their way through the geeks with little to no difficulty.

Finally the last geek fell, those who'd manage to survive the attack huddled around, some had their weapons raised, as if they didn't believe it was over. Others stared blankly a head of them, as if they couldn't believe what just happened. Sunny was one of the later.

"Sunny! Sunny Rae!?" That was her dad… Sunny blinked and looked down at those gathered there. She could see her dad frantically walking around, searching for any sign of her. "Sunny!" He screamed.

"Daddy!" She called out. Everyone turned to see her standing there bow in hand. "The ladder's got blood on it! I don't wanna slip!" She explained.

The relief on her dad's face almost caused her to burst into tears, she'd scared him. She'd made him think she was dead for a moment. "Stay right there baby girl, I'll get'chu down." He told her.

She walked over to the ledge where the ladder was, and quickly remembered the geek that had fallen on top of the other, "Wait!" She cried out before her dad could get to close, "The one on top is dead, but I'm not sure if the other is too." She explained at his questioning look.

Her dad nodded and pulled out his knife and quickly stabbed both bodies in the head for good measure. "Alright, c'mon down now baby girl. Nice and slow, watch your feet." He instructed as she carefully made her way down, trying to avoid as much blood as she could. "There you go." He whispered as she finally got to the point where he could grab her waist and lift her up. He pulled her down into his arms and just held her tight for a moment, "So fuckin' smart you are." He murmured into her hair. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck and cried silently. The shock of what just happened finally settling in her brain.

"Where's Uncle Merle?" She whispered. He wasn't here, she'd have heard his voice by now, what with him being all loud and all.

"Shh." Her dad hushed, "He ain't dead, but he wasn't there. I'll tell you more about it later. C'mon let's get you in the RV with the other kids." She whined, but didn't protest as he took her into the RV and set her down next to Sophia and the other kids. "You stay here with them, got it?"

She sighed and nodded her head, "What about my arrows?" She mumbled tiredly. The energy leaving her rapidly.

Her dad chuckled, "I'll get them, don't worry. Go to sleep." She huffed at him, but curled up in one of the corners and closed her eyes, hoping it would all be just a bad dream when she woke up.

* * *

**I got some really nice review so thank you for those! I hope I'm portraying Daryl right, like I know he's got a kid and everything, but I feel like that wouldn't stop him from being a bad ass, so I hope I'm not fucking that up.**

**Anyways, redangel2463 asked: How old is Sunny anyway? **

**She's about 11, going to turn 12. Since she's got a later birthday, (Which I haven't got a set date yet) she's would be going into 6th grade that year. This is assuming that the virus started at the end of the previous school year, or sometime during the summer, it's kinda hard to work with when there's no definite timeline you know? I feel like I'm portraying an 11-12 year old pretty good. I have a little sister, and although it's been awhile since she was that age it seems about right, plus my friend has got a 10 year old sister who'll be 11 soon. Sunny's a little more mature than some kids her age considering who her dad and uncle are.**

**But if anyone has any questions about Sunny, or the story in general feel free to ask! hoped you guys liked it let me know in the reviews!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ooh Child Things'll Get Better: Chapter 4**

_People's screams echoed in her ears, gun shots were cracking off in the distance, she couldn't see anyone, just the faceless dead reaching out for her. There was nowhere for her to run, she was trapped. As the screams grew louder, the hands reached closer. She could practically smell their rotting flesh. She watched in horror as one of the rotting hands reached out and clutched onto her shoulder._

With a gasp Sunny woke from her nightmare. She looked around frantically wondering where she was, nothing was familiar to her as pushed herself up off the ground she'd been sleeping on. She was in some small room with a little bed, on the bed lay Eliza and Sophia. Looking around the room more she spotted Carl, and Eliza's brother sleeping in the other corner opposite of her. Oh…She was in the RV. Memories from the night before flooded back, and she couldn't help but to cringe at how similar it was to her dream.

The other children were still sleeping soundly, as if the events of the previous night didn't happen at all. Glancing out the window she saw the sun was just now beginning to rise, and decided she no longer needed to be in the RV with the other children. She didn't want to be in the small enclosed space with them anyways, she wanted to be outside with more room, fresh air, and most importantly, her dad. He'd probably get mad that she decided to leave the RV without him coming to get her, but she just didn't care. She wanted him, and she wanted him now!

With that thought in mind, she made her way to the front of the RV, carefully stepping over some of the sleeping adults who'd made their way in at some point in the night. Quietly she pushed the door open and stuck her head out into the dim morning light. Not many people moving about like they'd done before the attack on camp. Most were gathered around the fire pit staring into it with lost expressions, the rest were slowly beginning the long process of cleaning up the camp, her dad among them.

She watched as he went from body to body, pulling forgotten weapons out of their bodies and putting them in a pile before going to the next. She noticed her quiver attached to his hip, and whenever he came upon a body with one of her arrows in it, he'd pull it out, try to wipe off the excess blood and gore, and put it with the others. It was while he was doing this that he looked up from his work, his eyes landing on her standing there, peeking out from the RV. His frown deepened, and she could see him mutter something- knowing her dad it was probably a curse- before he shoved the arrow he'd just pulled from the walkers body into the quiver and stomped over to her. "The hell you doin'?" He demanded, though his voice was quieter than usual. "Thought I told you 'ta stay in the RV?"

Sunny glanced behind her to see Glenn shift in his sleep, probably disturbed from the noise her dad was making. With a quiet sigh she stepped fully out of the RV and closed the door. Reluctantly she looked up at her dad. "Had a nightmare…" She mumbled.

Daryl sighed as he looked down at her, so small and tiny, didn't even look like she could hurt a fly, yet she'd taken down about a dozen walkers with that bow of hers. Despite this, she was still just a kid. He glanced to the side to see Andrea still kneeling over Amy's body, this wasn't the place to have this conversation. With a sigh he reached out and wrapped an arm around his daughter's shoulder and led her away from the rest of camp, "'Bout last night?" He asked once they'd reached a good distance from the destroyed camp.

Sunny sighed and nodded her head sadly, "I just didn't want to be in there anymore." She mumbled, she looked up at him with wide pleading eyes, "Can I stay out here with you?"

Daryl sighed once more, he knew she was scared from last night, and he knew he couldn't just force her into the RV for the rest of the day, but he also knew she shouldn't be out here either. "How 'bout this, you can stay out here, but you sit by the fire pit with the others, clean your arrows. I gotta help clean up, make sure camp is safe."

Knowing that was the best she was gonna get Sunny nodded her head in agreement. "I can clean your weapons too if you want." She offered.

Her dad nodded his head and led her over to the fire pit where a few of the others were gathered. She sat in an empty spot and waited as her dad went to go get her a rag and a bucket and some of his own weapons for her to clean. When he came back and set the things down around her. "You just stay here alright? No wandering off, even if you're done cleaning them weapons, got it?" He asked her sternly, he glanced over at Lori who was sitting beside her preparing some breakfast for those who were already up, "Do you mind…?"

She shook her head quickly, "I'll keep an eye on her, but Daryl do you really think it's a good idea for her to be out here?" Lori asked as she glanced around at the various bodies lying on the floor.

Daryl snorted, "She'll be fine, took out a dozen of 'em herself." Sunny felt a swell of pride at her dad's almost praise. Glancing down at the dirty arrows her dad had pulled from the walkers bodies she could see he wasn't exaggerating either, she really had taken out that many.

"Think we can go huntin' later?" She asked him eagerly hoping for an excuse to be away from the camp with just her dad.

He just shook his head, "Gonna take us a while to get rid all these guys, won't have the time today. You just clean those weapons, if anyone else needs their weapons cleaned I'll point them in your direction. If ya don't got nothin' ta do, you help Mrs. Grimes, got it?"

She knew that he was just trying to keep her busy, and normally she'd be annoyed, but after her nightmare she didn't mind the idea of being distracted. "Got it." She sighed.

"Good girl." Her dad smirked and ruffled her hair before walking off.

For the rest of the morning, and well into the afternoon Sunny sat at the fire pit gently cleaning her arrows, then her knives, then her dad's arrows and knives, and then random weapons that others brought over to her. At first they were wary of the idea of a little girl handling a weapon, but slowly got over that. Sunny had been cleaning her father and uncle's weapons since she'd been old enough to understand the potential danger. Hell, she even knew how to clean guns, but she was only allowed to do that with an adult watching over her making sure she did it right.

As the hours ticked by more and more people began helping with the clean-up process. Her dad was going around with a pickaxe, slamming it down into the dead's heads to make sure they were gone for good, while others started a fire and began dragging the bodies over to it to dump them in. Andrea continued to kneel over her sister's body, not letting anyone near. Lori had tried to talk to her earlier but the woman wouldn't even acknowledge her existence.

"She still won't move?" Rick asked as he walked over to the small fire pit where his wife and a few others, including Sunny, were sitting.

"She won't even talk to us." Lori confirmed. "She's been there all night. What do we do?"

"Can't just leave Amy like that" Shane sighed, "We need to deal with it, same as the others." Sunny wanted to disagree. It was just one, if Amy did turn and she bit Andrea then they'd just put them both out, wouldn't have time to hurt anyone else, and Andrea couldn't blame them for her mistake. But she didn't voice her thoughts, 'cause she knew her daddy would get mad if the adults told him she was arguing with them.

Rick nodded his head, agreeing with Shane, "I'll tell her how it is." He decided and walked over to kneel next to Amy and Andrea. However before he could even get into a full crouch Andrea had a gun pointed in his face, forcing him to back up and lift his hands in surrender. The adults around her shot to their feet in surprise, though no one rushed to do anything. Andrea said something to Rick which had him backing away cautiously, his hands still raised in the air in surrender until he was a safe enough distance away for Andrea to turn her attention back to her sister's body.

"We're just gonna have to leave her." Rick decided as he came back.

Sunny felt a hand rest on her shoulder and looked up to see her dad standing behind her, his pickaxe resting on his shoulder. "Y'all can't be serious." He growled, his grip on her shoulder tightening just a little, it was far from painful, but Sunny knew her dad wouldn't like the decision to leave Amy to Andrea. "The dead girl's a time bomb, I ain't lettin' it go off with my kid around."

Rick sighed tiredly and wiped a hand across his face, "What do you suggest?"

"Take the shot." Her dad explained like it was the simplest thing to do, "Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, even Sunny can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance." Sunny glanced over to where Amy was, it was true, she probably even get a clean shot on a rabbit from this distance too.

"No." Everyone looked over to Lori who'd spoken up. "For God's sake, let her be."

Her dad looked between the three adults before scoffing. "Keep your bow on you kid. That girl starts movin' around I want you to have that thing ready to fire, got it?"

"Yes daddy." She agreed pulling her bow closer to her, along with all the arrows she'd just cleaned. He nodded his head in approval before walking away to make sure the other walkers wouldn't be getting back up, along with their fallen group members.

She watched as her dad started to help drag bodies over to the burn pile, however Glenn stepped in front of him blocking the burn pile. The two argued for a few moments before her dad and Morales dragged the body over to the other side of the RV where a few of the other bodies lay. "Y'all left my brother for dead!" Her dad shouted then gaining the attention of the whole camp, "Ya had this coming!" He stormed off again to grab his pickaxe to let off some steam. He was still upset about Uncle Merle, but honestly so was she.

"A walker bit Jim!" Sunny's head snapped up at that, her eyes widening as she frantically reached for her bow and quiver and stood up. Everyone was slowly backing away from Jim, yet at the same time circling him so he couldn't run away. Sunny stood back as the adults gathered around, she knew her dad would get mad if she even thought of venturing to close.

"Show it to us." Her dad demanded as he began circling Jim with the pickaxe.

Feeling threatened, Jim reached down and held a shovel before him defensively. Everyone began chattering at once, some accusing, others terrified, and few, like Rick, trying to reason with everyone.

T-dog managed to rush up behind him and force the shovel out of his grip and hold his arms back while her dad rushed forward to pull Jim's shirt up enough to reveal the bite. "I'm okay! I'm okay!" Jim protested the entire time, the phrase becoming more and more like a prayer.

"Sunny Rae!" Her dad called out as he rushed up to her, pick-ax in hand. He grabbed her by the shoulders and began to frantically look her over just as he did the night before, as if a walker had come out of nowhere and bitten her while no one was looking.

"I'm…I'm fine." She'd almost said 'I'm okay' but considering that's what Jim had just been chanting she figured it'd be better to go with something else. "Really, I'm fine."

He continued to look her over, running his hands over her arms, and checking her shirt for any blood stains. "You stay with me the rest of the day, got it?" He demanded. She couldn't help the sigh that escaped her lips as she begrudgingly nodded her head in agreement. "Listen to me Sunny Rae, there are two, _two_, people well on their way to becoming walkers, I don't you out of my sight for even a minute, do you hear me?" She nodded her head this time, though with less exasperation. "Good, got your knife?" She pulled it out of the sheath at her hip to show him before putting it back, "Good, now you keep that bow and those arrows close and you don't take your eye off of either of them till they got a hole in them brains. Now stay with me." He instructed as he walked over to the group of adults gathered to determine Jim's faith.

"Do you really think it's a good idea for her to be here?" Lori demanded as she glanced angrily down at Sunny.

"I sure as hell ain't lettin' her out of my sight with these two walking around camp." Her dad snarled.

"Daryl-"

Rick tried to protest, but her dad had cut him off, "I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it."

"Is that what you'd want?" Shane asked, glaring at him. "If it were you? Your daughter?"

Sunny's eyes widened as he said that, "Shane!" Lori scolded.

She could feel herself shaking as she looked from him to the other bodies lying about on the ground, holes in their heads. She felt her father's hand rest gently on her head, pulling her so that she was right up against his side, her tiny hand gripping his pant leg tightly. What would her dad do if she'd been bit? "If it were me? Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it. And if it were Sunny, she felt his grip tighten as he pulled her even closer to him, "I wouldn't let her turn into one of those things." For some reason, instead of scaring her, his words brought her comfort. Her daddy wouldn't let her become a monster. He wouldn't let her turn into a walking corpse.

It was quiet as the Daryl and Shane glared one another down, "I hate to say it, I never thought I would, but maybe Daryl's right." Dale spoke quietly, diffusing the growing tension.

"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog." Rick disagreed, instantly shooting down whatever Dale was about to suggest.

Dale shook his head, "I'm not suggesting-"

"He's sick!" Shane interrupted angrily, not letting Dale finish. "A sick man."

"If we start down that road where do we draw the line?" Rick asked, trying to be the voice of reason.

"Line's pretty clear." Her dad spoke up, she felt him gently nudge her away from his side. "Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be."

"What if we can get him help? I heard the C.D.C. was working on a cure." Rick suggested. Even Sunny felt skeptical of that. If they could just get Jim help wouldn't this whole walker mess already be taken care of? Surely if there was some sort of cure for at least a bite there wouldn't be as much as a problem.

"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell." Shane pointed out.

"What if the C.D.C. is still up and running?" Rick questioned. He obviously didn't know much about how bad all this was if he thought there were still big groups of people trying to work on a cure. Even Sunny knew a lot of people were gone.

"Man that is a stretch right there." Shane said, voicing the thoughts of everyone there.

"Why?" Rick demanded, his voice full of hope. "If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the C.D.C. at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot, shelter protection, rescue-" Sunny looked up at her dad wondering what he thought, but all she could see was him scowling and shaking his head. He didn't care if the C.D.C. was still working, he just wanted the problems gone now.

"Okay, Rick, you want all those things alright? I do too, okay?" Shane explained, trying to reason with his friend, "Now if they exist, they're at the army base Fort Benning."

"That's a hundred miles in the opposite direction." Lori pointed out. Sunny wasn't sure how far that was but it sounded pretty far, a hundred was a pretty big number after all.

"That is right, but it's away from the hot zone." Shane reasoned, "Now listen to me if that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'll be safe there."

Rick shook his head, "The military was on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun, we've all _seen_ that! The C.D.C. is our best choice, and Jim's only chance."

Sunny tensed as she felt her dad step further from her, glancing over his shoulder at Jim, "You go lookin' for Asprin, do what you need to do." He turned away from the small gathering picking up his pickaxe as he went, "Somebody needs to have the balls to take care of the damn problem!"

He was a step away from Jim, axe raised high above his head ready to strike, Rick just a pace behind him, his gun pointed at the back of her father's head. Sunny herself had rushed up to Rick ready to stop him by any means necessary, just like last time, when she felt arms wrap around her waist and haul her off of the ground. She kicked and screamed and tried to reach for her knife that was just out of reach, tried to lean forward and bite into the arms that held her, but it was all useless. The arms around her were like steal bands keeping her in place.

"We don't kill the living." She heard Rick tell her dad.

He turned to glare at him, his eyes glancing over to where she was being held against her will. His eyes narrowed in anger as he looked back over to Rick. "That's funny coming from a guy who just put a gun to my head in front of my daughter."

"We may disagree on some things but not on this." Shane told him, his voice coming from behind her. So he was the one holding her off the ground. "You put it down."

"Put my fucking kid down." Her dad growled.

She could feel Shane's grip tighten, and with a nod from Rick he slowly lowered the girl to the ground. Once her feet touched the ground she was pulling out of his grip and rushing towards her dad's. He threw the pickaxe down and scooped her up off the floor and cradled her to his chest protectively.

"You alright?" He asked her as he finally set her down. He'd walked them over towards his truck, away from everyone else.

"Yeah…" She mumbled quietly. She hated that Rick and Shane kept ganging up on her dad like they did, it wasn't fair! Weren't they cops? Weren't they supposed to protect people and not bully people? She winced as her dad gently pressed against her side while checking her over. She glanced at him hoping he hadn't noticed, unfortunately for her, he had.

"Let me see." He mumbled quietly as he carefully raised her shirt up so he could see her ribs. Her normally pale skin was slowly turning a light purple that had her dad glaring over to where Shane stood in front of the RV guarding the doorway where Rick and Jim had gone through. "Asshole." Her dad growled. He continued to gently prod at her ribs making sure Shane hadn't done more damage to them. "He does that again you kick him where your Uncle Merle taught you to, got it?" She nodded her head in agreement, a little amused smile on her lips. She remembered when her Uncle taught her that trick, her dad had been mad at him for a while after that for talking to her in such a crude manner.

"Dad?" She mumbled. He hummed at her, encouraged her to go on, "You said you'd tell me what happened to Uncle Merle…"

He sighed and looked down, not wanting to meet her eyes. He only did this when he had to talk about something that was hard for him, like her mother or grandparents. "Ya know Rick handcuffed him to a roof, well you know yer uncle, he can be a lot to deal with sometimes." Sunny nodded her head in agreement, she could remember times when her daddy had kicked Uncle Merle out for weeks on end, often telling him not to show up till he 'got his shit together.' "So Rick did what he had to do."

"But why did they leave him behind?" she demanded, her anger at Rick from before flaring back to the surface.

"They didn't have a lot of time, walkers were gonna break in, then none of them would'a come back." He sighed, "When we went back, yer uncle, he, well, he wasn't thinkin' straight. Got it into his head that the only way out of that was to cut off his hand." Sunny's eyes widened at that. He'd cut off his own hand to get away? Didn't he know her daddy would go looking for him? "We didn't find the rest o' him, just his hand. Figure he's out there somewhere lickin' his wounds."

"Why didn't he come back here?" She mumbled sadly. She knew her uncle liked to be on his own sometimes, but after all the walkers started coming around, and people dying she didn't think he'd leave them.

Her dad just sighed and shook his head, "Just how yer Uncle Merle is kid. Doesn't like to be in one place for too long, needs some time to sort out his problems."

"Then why don't we go look for him?" She demanded. They couldn't just leave him out there! Not if he only had one hand… Maybe if he wasn't hurt she'd be more confident that he'd find them again, but with him being injured she wasn't sure how well he could protect himself.

Daryl just shook his head, "Sorry kid, but if yer Uncle Merle don't wanna be found, he ain't gonna be found. No trail for me to follow anyways. Plus, it's safer for us to stick with this group, power in numbers an' all that crap." He sighed as Sunny hung her head dejectedly, "C'mon Sunny Rae, have a lil' faith. No one can kill Merle, but Merle. Now don't look so glum, what would he say ta' ya?"

"'Rays o' Sunshine ain't supposed to be sad.'" She quoted her uncle, a little smile coming to her lips as she remembered all the times he'd tell her that.

"That's right." He nodded his head in agreement and affectionately ruffled her hair. "Now, you's stand back while us grownups start loading the bodies into the back of the truck.

Sunny felt her nose wrinkle in disgust, "Yer gonna put the bodies in the back of our truck?"

"Well I ain't gon' carry them now am I?" He chuckled.

"Yuck." She grumbled, but followed after him none the less.

She watched as all the adults carefully loaded the bodies of their fallen group members into the back of her dad's truck. There wasn't too many, less than ten from what she could tell. She could see Sophia and all the other kids standing off to the side and out of the way. She hadn't seen them since she'd woken up, their parents must have forced them to stay in the RV all day until Jim was taken in there, and then probably ushered to another 'safer' part of camp. She snorted at that, nowhere was safe, not now, not ever. If she thought somewhere was safe for even a moment she'd probably end up dead, or like Uncle Merle. She shuddered at the thought of a lost limb. She couldn't imagine life without either of her hands.

"Sunny Rae!" She snapped out of her thoughts at her dads call. He was standing by the driver's side door waving her over, "C'mon, gonna head up to where Rick 'n Shane are digging the graves."

Not wanting to keep him waiting she jogged over to the passenger side door, and slid into her usual spot. "Do you know what we're gonna do after this?" She asked him while buckling her seat belt.

"Not sure what those two are gonna pick, keep arguin' over which place to go, C.D.C. or Fort Benning." He shrugged, "Don't really matter which one we go to, idiots just need to settle on a place."

"Where would you go?" She asked him, genuinely curious as to where he would pick.

He glanced over at her before looking back to the road pondering her question. "Don't know." He finally decided. "Military fell, anyone could see that. Doubt they're holed up over at Benning, but the C.D.C is close to the city, probably over run too. Guess I'd just have us go North, take our chances in the mountains."

She nodded her head in agreement. Her dad grew up in the mountains, and he'd taken her on plenty of camping trips up there before, they'd probably thrive there. However the rest of the group would be clueless, probably get themselves eaten by a mountain lion or something. "Maybe we can go when Uncle Merle comes back." She suggested.

Daryl glanced over at his daughter with a sad look. He didn't know if his brother was coming back. He knew he was still alive, but that fucker probably took off. It was what he was good at, what he knew, and what he always did. "Maybe." He agreed quietly.

Finally he reached the top of the hill where the graves were, and carefully backed the truck up as close as he could so they wouldn't have to carry the bodies far. He got out and walked over to where Rick and Shane were digging the last few graves, "I still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies." He called out. Sunny hopped out of the cab and jogged over to him, pushing herself into his side and forcing him to wrap his arm around her shoulder. "It's what we said we'd do right? Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?" The rest of the group slowly made their way towards the graves, they'd all had to walk so they were a little bit more delayed than Sunny and her dad.

"At first." Shane agreed, still digging.

Her dad scoffed and shook his head, "Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along?" Rick and Shane stopped digging to look at him, "These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, what the rules are."

Rick shook his head, "There are no rules."

"There are if you got to handcuff Uncle Merle to a roof 'cause he wasn't followin' along with the rest of y'all." Sunny grumbled while glaring at the police man.

Her dad lightly hit her on the head, scolding her without actually meaning it. He agreed with her, but he was upset with how rude she was about it. "No, she's right." Lori said as she made her way over to them, "Having no rules, well that's a problem." Sunny smiled proudly over at her, glad someone agreed with her out loud. "We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn, and we need time to bury our dead. It's what people do." Sunny frowned at that. That wasn't what she meant. They needed rules, not have time to turn back into their old selves, cause let's face it, unless all the walkers go away, and enough people survived to rebuild what they once had, there was no going back. It was like what her science teacher said about evolution: adapt or die out. And she wasn't planning on dying out anytime soon.

"My momma wasn't buried…" She mumbled quietly, deciding not to voice her other thoughts. She glanced up at her dad, "Right? We didn't burry her. Grandpa took us on that trip and we threw her ashes into the wind."

Her dad smiled sadly down at her remembering that trip himself. Jasey had never wanted to be buried, said the idea of her just sitting in the ground rotting away freaked her out. After she'd died giving birth to Sunny, her family had her body cremated, although her father decided to wait until Sunny was old enough to understand what spreading the ashes meant. That'd been about two years ago. "Ain't nothin' wrong with bein' cremated. But not everyone wants that to happen to them, just like not everyone wants to be buried." He explained quietly to her.

She nodded her head, understanding what he was saying to her. "If something happens to me I wanna be cremated." She decided, "Just like momma."

Daryl grimaced at that, the idea of having to burry, or cremate this case, his child sent a chill down his spine. "Well, yer gonna have to tell someone else, cause ain't nothin' that's gonna hurt you while I'm alive, got it?" She nodded at him with a grin, "C'mon, they gonna start burying the bodies."

The two of them stood back, a little further than the rest of the group. Sunny hadn't been very close to those that were in the group, her father even less so. The only one of their dead that she actually sort of knew was Amy, and the only time she ever really hung around her was when she'd help skin the kills her dad brought back for them to cook. She said a little prayer in her head, not because she was religious, but because she felt that they at least deserved that from her.

Amy was the last to be buried. Everyone stood back as Andrea tried to lift her sister by herself, refusing everyone's help, even Dale who continuously tried to help until finally Amy was laid in her grave. No one said anything, everyone just stood quietly and mourned for the dead in their own way. For her and her dad, they just stood back and bowed their heads respectfully, until slowly everyone began to head back to the camp.

The two of them stayed there until most of the group had made their way back to camp before they got into the pickup truck. They remained silent for the small drive back to camp where they gathered around the fire pit with everyone else while Rick, Shane and Dale did a quick scan of the woods around them.

When they returned the sun was slowly sinking back down into the horizon, and Sunny knew that wherever the grownups had decided to go, they wouldn't be leaving until the morning.

She glanced up as the three made their way to the small group gathered around the fire pit, Shane walking towards an empty spot while Rick joined Lori and Carl, and Dale hung back to observe. "I've uh, I've been thinking about Rick's plan." Shane spoke up, everyone turned their attention to him, "Now look there are no guarantees either way, I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time, I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning for the C.D.C." Sunny looked up at her dad to see his reaction, he seemed to be nodding in agreement. He looked down and met her questioning eyes before he nodded his head and lead her over to their truck.

"We'll sleep in here tonight alright?" He mumbled.

"Why not our tent?" She asked him with a confused frown.

"Not very good at keepin' walkers out. I'll feel better if you were in the truck for the night." He explained. "C'mon let's go pack up our stuff, n' put it in the back so we don't gotta do it tomorrow."

She nodded her head and quickly ran over to their tent to start gathering her things. A lot of her belongings that she'd originally had when she'd left her home had been messed up in some way. Stains were the least of her problems now, most of her clothes had tears in them, her shirts from getting snagged on a branch while hunting with her dad, the knees and bottoms of her jeans were tatters, and some of her shirts she'd just cut the sleeves off cause she figured her dad had the right idea, Georgia sun was just too hot to have 'em. Most of her comics had been either destroyed or left behind, and she'd finished the Harry Potter book a while back and decided to leave it behind. If you didn't need it, it was best to leave behind. The only belonging she had that was still in good condition was the picture of her mom and dad still in the frame it'd been in when she'd originally packed it.

It was dark out by the time she and her dad finished putting the last of their things into the back of the truck, the others were gathered around the fire pit and eating some of their canned foods. Her dad hadn't hunted in a few days, he hadn't had the time so they were breaking into their canned food stash. There was less of them now, so it wasn't like they didn't have enough. Still they held back, everyone sharing a can with another, she and her dad shared a can of beans. It was silent, no one was really in the mood to chat.

Finally everyone finished their food and slowly made their way back to where they'd be sleeping tonight. The watch shift had already been decided, so whoever was picked for first watch would make their way to the top of the RV. Sunny and her dad quietly made their way into the truck, her dad adjusted his seat so it was further back from the wheel to give him leg room, while she stretched out across the bench, her head laying comfortably in his lap. When she was really little, and they'd go on long drives she'd often find herself in the same position. It was comforting to her, and it was the only way she was sure she'd get a good night's sleep.

As if he'd been reading her thoughts, her dad rested his hand on her head and gently stroked her hair, "Get some rest Sunny Rae." He told her quietly, "Ain't nothin' gonna get you while I'm around." He promised. "Nothin."

* * *

**Okay super sorry this took me so long to get out! Like super, super, super sorry! But I did make this chapter extra long as part of my apology! I was dealing with finding a place to live, (I found one!) and I also don't have a lot of wifi so I've had to cut back- plus I'm gonna be completely honest with you, I got hooked on the show Once Upon a Time and I binged on that when I could so yeah I was also busy with that. I will do my best to get at least one chapter out a week, but no guarantees!**

**On a side note today was the first day in my Archery class where we got to actually shoot arrows! And I've realized that I've left out a very important detail to Sunny's gear in regarding her bow and arrows- Arm guards and finger tabs! I can not express how much it hurts when the string of the bow snaps against the most sensitive part of your inner forearm. I did it twice and I now have two big ass welts and some bruises that look like I got hit with a freaking BB gun. Not fun. But I did feel like a bad ass the entire class not gonna lie so if you ever have the chance to take a class, take it! Lots of fun.**

**Anyways, hope you guys liked the chapter- leave a review they motivate me!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Ooh Child Things'll Get Brighter: Chapter 5**

Sunny woke up the next morning much more relaxed and energized than the night before. Her dad's comforting words and presence had kept her nightmares at bay. As she woke up more she noticed her dad wasn't in the cab with her. Where her dad's leg had been her pillow for the night now lay one of his flannel shirts, all bunched up to make a decent enough pillow for her to sleep on. Slowly she pushed herself up off the seat, stretched, and then made her way out of the cab, slipping her dad's shirt over her tiny shoulders to keep the morning chill at bay. It was so big on her it might as well have been a blanket she wrapped around herself. With a final yawn she stumbled her way over to the fire pit where everyone was gathered getting ready go over their plan of action to get to the C.D.C.

The moment her dad saw her stumbling over towards him he chuckled. She was always groggy and disoriented when she got up if she got a good nights sleep, always taking a few minutes to get used to standing again, she'd gotten that from her mother. Once she was within arm's reach he scooped her up and held her to his chest offering her a granola bar he hadn't eaten. She scrunched up her face and shook her head before burying it in his neck, her cold little nose rubbing on his warm skin. He rolled his eyes at her and tucked the bar back into his pocket knowing that once she was more awake she'd be wanting it.

He stood back and listened to Shane as he described how they'd be communicating on the road for those with C.B.'s and for those without. He raised a brow when the Morales family decided not to stick with them. Wasn't a smart move on their part, one man to protect his two kids and wife? Chances didn't look to good for them, but he wouldn't say anything. It was their decision, not his. He scoffed when Rick and Shane offered the man a gun and ammo, if you asked him it was a waste. It was their choice to leave the group, didn't mean they should be giving away precious guns and ammo, that shit was hard to come by after all, could probably be considered gold now a days. Again he wouldn't say anything, mostly because he knew if it were him leaving with Sunny, he'd want some more protection too.

He stayed back as the group said their good byes, offering a nod of acknowledgement towards Morales when they locked eyes. He didn't bother waking Sunny knowing she'd probably be uncomfortable with the goodbyes. She wasn't friends with their kids, hell he'd never even seen her talk to them. Nah, he'd let her sleep for now and if she asks he'll just tell her they decided to part ways.

"C'mon, let's move out!" Shane called as everyone finished wishing the family luck. He walked back over to his truck and gently laid Sunny back down, she might as well have stayed in the truck in the first place, he thought with a smirk. He closed the door quietly and walked around to the driver's side and got in. It was decided that Morales and his family would be in the front since they'd be branching off from the rest once they'd gotten back to the main road, then The RV would be leading their little caravan with Rick driving Carol's car behind it, followed by T-Dog and his van, then him and Sunny in the truck, and finally Shane would bring up the rear with his jeep. The C.D.C wasn't too far, they'd get there before it got dark so long as there wasn't too many road blocks.

Sunny stayed asleep for most of the trip, her head tucked into his lap while he drove with the windows down. As they drove past abandoned houses with over grown grass he couldn't help but to think of all the times he'd take Sunny on drives into the country. No matter what time of day it was the drive would always lull her to sleep. It was how he always got her to fall asleep as a baby if she was being more fussy than usual.

His eyes narrowed as the Van's break lights went off in front of him, he followed the example and slowed his truck to a stop. He watched as the others turned off their vehicles and got out before he decided it was time to wake Sunny and go see what was going on.

He shook her shoulder gently, "C'mon time to get up Sunny Rae, sun's shinin' without ya'." She grumbled and rolled to her side so that her face was pressed into the seat. "C'mon Sunny." He sighed as he reached for her and pulled her out from her armpits, "Time to rise and shine, you've been asleep all morning."

"'M hungry…" She whined as he finally managed to pull her out of the cab and set her on her feet. He rolled his eyes and pulled the granola bar out from his pocket. Just like he'd predicted she tore into it hungrily. "Where we at?" She asked around her mouthful of food.

Daryl glanced around and shrugged, "Not sure, on our way to the C.D.C. looks like something's wrong with the RV, gotta stop and fix it." He explained.

Sunny nodded her head in understanding, "We'll be there soon?"

He narrowed his eyes in thought, the roads had been pretty clear so far, they'd been trying to avoid any major roads so that they didn't run into traffic snares or worse, walkers. "Should be there before nightfall." He shrugged, "So long as we get that RV up and runnin' soon."

She nodded her head in understanding before reaching into the back to grab her bow and arrows. "Just in case." She mumbled.

He smirked and nodded his head in agreement, it was good that she was getting into the habit of carrying that around with her everywhere, never knew when something could happen, could save her life one day… "Go over with Sophia an' Carl while we try to get the RV up and runnin', make sure they don't go wanderin' off." He instructed.

Her head tilted to the side in confusion, "What about the Morales kids?"

"Their parents decided it'd be best for them to find their family in Alabama." He explained. "Don't think it was the best idea, but it's his family." Sunny nodded her head in understanding before walking off to go find Carl and Sophia.

She still wasn't really good friends with Carl, and her friendship with Sophia was still new, so she wasn't too sure where she stood with them. "Hey…" She called out somewhat timidly as she walked up to where they stood by Carol's car, the one the two had been riding in with their respective parents.

"Hey Sunny." Sophia greeted cheerfully while Carl shifted on his feet unsure of how to treat the girl. Ever since he'd apologized for lying to his mom the two had stayed out of each other's way, not wanting to get into another unnecessary fight. "Sleep good?" She asked with an amused smile.

Sunny shrugged, her own small smile on her lips, "Better than the other night."

"Same for us but our parents wouldn't let us sleep in like your daddy let you." The other girl pouted.

The three of them lulled into an awkward silence, none of them really knowing what to say to one another now. "Your dad lets you carry around your weapons?" Carl asked as he eyed the sheathed knife on her belt along with arrows in the quiver, and the bow on her back.

"Yeah, but I've been able to use them for a while, so my dad trusts me with them." She explained. He felt a small stab of jealousy, but shrugged it off with a nod. She'd grown up out in the country where it was normal to do things like go camping in the woods or hunt for your own food, while he'd grown up in a boring suburb.

"That's really cool!" Sophia told her excitedly, glad her two friends could have a decent conversation. "Think you'd be able to teach me how to use your bow one day?"

Sunny shrugged, "Depends on which eye is your dominant eye. I got a left eye dominant bow, if you use it and you're right eye dominant then your aim will be off." She explained.

"How come you don't use a crossbow like your dad?" Carl asked, he'd always wondered but the two never really talked so he'd never really gotten the chance to ask.

Sunny laughed a little, "He wanted me to, but I thought a simple bow was cooler, plus I don't really like the crossbow. Had to use my dad's old ones until he and Uncle Merle got me this one."

"Why don't you like the crossbow?" Sophia wondered. You'd think she'd like it better since it was her dad's choice of weapon.

"Crossbows are heavy, and hard to move around with. Bows are pretty light, and it doesn't take as long to set up for another shot. With a crossbow you have to pull the string back and i have to use both hands to do it." She explained.

The three continued to chat while the adults worked on fixing the RV, Sunny thought they were getting ready to get back onto the road again when Lori and Carol came over. "Kids, come on we're going to say goodbye to Jim." Lori explained gently as she rested one of her hands on Carl's shoulder.

Sunny's eyes widened, did he turn? Was he about to? How could they tell if he was about to turn? Or did the adults change their mind and decide Jim wasn't worth the effort?

Sensing the children's distress Carlo quickly stepped in, "He wants this, okay? The drive is putting him through a lot of pain. This is his choice, no one wants to leave him behind, but if it's what he wants, well, then all we can do is grant him his wish." She told the three of them softly.

Her dad came up to her then, and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "C'mon kid," He said gently, "you already missed one good bye today." The two of them followed behind the rest of the group, allowing themselves to be the last to say goodbye. Jim was one of the few people at camp that didn't get on her dad's nerves, or treat them any differently because they were considered 'rednecks'. He respected them, and acknowledged the hard work they put into providing the camp with fresh meat. They owed him a final goodbye.

She and her dad stayed there and watched everyone say their goodbyes until finally they were the last ones there. Her dad and Jim locked eyes until finally Jim nodded, and her dad nodded back. It was easy to see the nonverbal respect her dad was showing Jim, and an apology too for threatening him with the pickaxe from before. She offered Jim one last smile, one that he returned, and with that the two made their way back into the truck. She kept her eyes on the road as the caravan finally began moving again, that last smile Jim had given her would be how she'd remember him.

Now… Now they had to get to the C.D.C.

* * *

Sunny perked up once the signs for the C.D.C. came into view, the sun was just now starting it's slow decent into the horizon, and she knew they'd have to be quick to make it in before it completely set and all was dark.

The caravan pulled to a stop ahead of them, her dad quickly following their example before he cut the engine. She could already see dead bodies from where they were parked, and to be honest, she wasn't quite so certain this was a good place to be, especially not after dark.

Her dad turned to her before she had the chance to even reach for the door, "Alright Sunny Rae, I want you with your bow out and arrow knocked. I don't like the look of this place." he instructed.

She nodded her head in agreement and quickly pushed the door open and slid out of her seat, reaching into the back of the truck for her bow and quiver. She didn't want to be without them for even a second. Then the two of them quickly made their way to where the rest of their group was gathering.

The closer they got to the C.D.C. the more rotting corpses there were, all had flies buzzing about them, and each gave off the nastiest smell she'd ever had the displeasure of smelling. The others around her began coughing, and gagging at the scent. Sunny was quick to pull her shirt up and over her nose to block out the smell as much as possible. "Alright everyone, let's go, stick together." Rick instructed as he began leading the way through the sea of bodies. Sunny figured there were enough eyes to keep an eye out for approaching walkers, instead she focused on the ones littering the ground around them, making sure each and every one of them had a bullet in their head before she even allowed herself to come near them.

Finally they reached the front entrance. It seemed pretty secure with the metal shutters down in front of them. Shane stepped forward to try and lift it while Rick pounded on it hoping someone would hear, hoping someone was in there and willing to help them.

T-Dog shook his head, "There's nobody here." He sighed in defeat.

"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick challenged, not willing to believe there was no hope for them.

"Walkers!" Her dad warned. Her head snapped up and she quickly had her bow up and drawn and ready to shoot if need be. "S'alright kid, hold that arrow. I'll let you know when to fire." He told her soothingly. She glanced over at him, he had his crossbow up and ready, she knew he had this. His arrow flew and embedded itself into the walker's skull, killing it instantly. She turned her head as she spotted another one, though it was a bit further back than the other, it was out of her range. "You lead us into a graveyard!" Her dad accused, turning around to shout at Rick.

Sunny could hear the others as they began to panic while a few more walkers emerged from further out. She had to keep calm, she couldn't panic, it would mess up her aim, messed up aim meant misses, misses meant no kills and no arrows, no kills and no arrows meant her death. So she wouldn't panic, not yet. She wouldn't let herself.

The walker finally stepped into her shooting range and she allowed her arrow to fly. The arrow hit it right between its eyes just like the one her dad had taken out just moments before. Breathe. She told herself as she knocked another arrow. More walkers began stumbling towards them as the adults behind her began a shouting match.

"The camera! It moved!" Rick yelled, stopping everyone.

Sunny glanced over her shoulder to see the camera Rick was talking about, could there really be someone in there? Her head snapped back to face in front of her as she heard the growl of a walker, she allowed her second arrow to fly. Knocking a third she took an uneasy step towards her dad. They had to move quickly, she'd be out of arrows soon.

She felt her hands start to shake as she watched more and more walkers come towards them, they didn't have the ammo for this, and if they used the guns who knew how many of those things would be attracted to the sound. She felt her breaths become shallow, and her hands shake to the point where she was sure if she even tried to fire an arrow it'd probably just embed itself in the ground.

"Sunny!" Her dad's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, he gently pulled her back so that she was completely shielded by him, "Nothin's gonna happen to ya, swear. I ain't gonna let nothin' touch you ok?" She nodded her head and buried her face in his back while her small hands clenched onto his shirt for dear life. She was panicking now.

"You're killing us!" Rick shouted, over and over until finally Shane was able to pull him away.

The group was just about to take off at a dead sprint to get back to the relative safety of the cars when an odd sound echoed from behind them. It sounded like an old gate being opened for the first time in years. Slowly she turned her head to look over her shoulder at the white light that shone brightly before them. If Sunny didn't know better she'd think this was the gates to Heaven.

It wasn't until the blinding white light shut off did the group regain their senses and moved into the building. Sunny felt her dads hand on her shoulder, guiding her forward as he looked back and forth between the inside of the building where unknown threats could be waiting and behind them where walkers were slowly making their way towards them.

"Hello?" Rick called out as the group cautiously made their way inside. They were in the lobby it seemed, yet no one was around to greet them. "Hello?" He called out again.

The sound of a gun cocking had them all raising their own weapons towards the noise. A man stood before them, some type of machine gun in his hands while he stared at them passively. "Anybody infected?" He demanded.

"One of our group was, he didn't make it." Rick explained, telling the strange man about Jim.

The man came closer, his gun still trained on them, "Why are you here? What do you want?"

"A chance." Rick told him hopefully.

"That's an awful lot to ask for these days." The man replied.

"I know." They all stood staring at the man as he glanced around at each of them.

They waited with bated breath as he finally sighed, "You all submit to a blood test, that's the price of admission."

"We can do that." Rick agreed.

The man nodded his head and finally lowered the gun, "You got stuff you wanna bring in you do it now, once this door closes it doesn't open again."

"Stay here." Her dad told her as he turned with some of the other members of the group and ran out towards their truck to grab their bags. She waited anxiously for them to come back. Once they did she let out the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. "Here ya go." Her dad mumbled, passing her the three arrows she'd used on the walkers, he must have ran by them on his way to or from the truck. "You can clean 'em later." She gave him a little smile as she put the arrows back in the quiver with the others.

The man turned to what looked like a control panel and spoke into the speaker,"VI, seal the main entrance, kill the power up here." Sunny scrunched up her nose in confusion, she'd never heard of someone with the name Vi before, maybe it was a nickname? Like for Violet maybe?

"Who's Vi?" Glenn panted, still recovering from his mad dash to and from the cars. Sunny shrugged, and followed the strange man down a hallway and into an elevator. He'd introduced himself as Dr. Edwin Jenner.

As they all crammed into the elevator Sunny pressed herself closer to her dad feeling better with him as close as possible. The elevator ride itself was awkward, no one spoke, and the silence was suffocating, there wasn't even elevator music playing. "Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" her dad asked, finally breaking the silence.

Jenner glanced over his shoulder at him with a smirk. "Oh there were plenty left lying around, I familiarized myself."

Once they reached their floor the doors opened with a 'whoosh' noise and Jenner led them down a long corridor. Everything was white, and there were no windows, two things that really bugged Sunny. "Are we underground?" Carol called out.

Jenner glanced over his shoulder at her, "You claustrophobic?" He asked her.

Carol shrugged her shoulders, "A little."

He offered her a weak smile, "Try not to think about it." was all the advise he could offer her.

The corridor then opened up into a big room, lots of computers everywhere, it looked like something straight out of a NASA movie, although unlike the movies, the computer screens were powered down, and there was no one else in the giant room. "VI, turn on the overhead lights." Jenner called out, still walking forward as if nothing was strange about the big empty room. "Welcome to zone five."

"Where is everybody?" Rick asked the question that everyone had been thinking. "The other doctors? The staff?"

"I'm it." Sunny's eyes widened. No he couldn't be the only one, he just couldn't! It didn't make sense. "It's just me here."

"What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?" Lori asked from the back.

"VI, say hello to our guests, tell them 'welcome'." Jenner instructed.

"Hello guests, welcome." Came a mechanical voice.

"I'm all that's left." Jenner repeated. "I'm sorry." With that he lead them back out of the room, "We'll do those blood tests now if you don't mind." No one was willing to say no considering the fact that they'd already agreed to it, so quietly they followed him into another empty room.

Sunny grunted when the needle went into her skin, she'd never been fond of shots and this was her first time getting her blood drawn- well first time she could remember at least. She felt her dad hands grip her shoulders to stop her from flinching away. "Sorry." Jenner mumbled not taking his eyes off the needle as he slowly drew her blood out of her arm and into the syringe, "I'd give you a lolly pop or a sticker or something, but we're fresh out" He told her.

"Don't need no sticker." She grumbled, that was only for little kids after all.

Her dad chuckled and rolled his eyes, "Alright, alright c'mon. We're done now let's go wait with the others. She grumbled but followed after him, he'd already gotten his blood drawn before her so he could show her it wasn't so bad.

They stood back with the other group members that'd already gotten their blood drawn, only Andrea was left, and she complained the entire time. Once they were done Jenner stood before them all, "There's a kitchen, and plenty of leftover food and drink, you're all welcomed to it. I can show you there if you'd like?" Everyone nodded eagerly and followed after the doctor, excited at the idea of having a decent meal for the first time in days.

Anyone who knew how to cook immediately rushed into the kitchen and began preparing food for the group to eat. Sunny's stomach growled as the smells wafted around her. Those that didn't know how to cook sat at the empty table, the grownups opening bottles of wine, or in her dad's case whiskey and began drinking. Soon they all sat around the table their plates full of food, laughing, chatting and just having a good time. Even her dad was grinning, something he didn't do too often.

Dale was passing out glasses of wine trying to convince Lori and Carol to let the kids have a bit. "You know in Italy children have a little bit of wine with dinner, and in France!"

Lori shook her head and held her hand over Carl's glass to keep Dale from pouring some wine into it, "Yeah well, when Carl is in Italy or France he can have some then."

Rick laughed and rolled his eyes, "What's it gonna hurt? C'mon!" Lori shot him a glance, "C'mon!" he encouraged some more, trying to convince his wife to let their son have a taste of the alcohol. He probably wouldn't like it anyways. Most kids didn't.

Finally Lori gave in and allowed Dale to pour a small amount of wine in. Carl eagerly picked it up, and without hesitating took a gulp. Everyone watched with amusement and he scrunched up his face, and stuck out his tongue, "EW!" Everyone burst out laughing at his reaction.

Still chuckling Dale turned to Sunny, "What about you dear? Want some wine?"

Sunny mirrored Carl's earlier expression and shook her head, "I don't like wine."

"How do you know?" Her dad asked incredulously.

She grinned up at him slyly, "Uncle Merle."

"Son of a bitch." Her dad laughed, and shook his head. "Knew I shouldn't have left you around with him so much."

Everyone continued laughing and joking, happy to just finally be able to take a moment to sit and relax and not worry about a walker sneaking up behind them. The high pitched ring of silverware tapping against glass quieted everyone as they turned their attention to Rick who was standing himself up. "Seems to me we haven't properly thanked our host yet."

T-Dog lifted his glass high in the air, "He is more than just our host." Everyone raised their glasses, cheering in agreement.

"Boo-yeah!" Her dad called out, causing Sunny to burst into a fit of giggles. He was always more funny when he drank alcohol. He didn't do it often, but some nights he'd open a bottle and drink a little bit. Although he never drank so much that he couldn't properly take care of Sunny. No matter how much he'd want to get shit-face drunk, he'd never allow himself to get to that point, scared he'd turn into his own father.

"Boo-yeah!" She and the rest of the group echoed him.

"So when are you going to tell us what the hell happened here doc?" Shane asked, his voice serious as can be cutting through the laughter. Everyone around him slowly quieted down, their smiles slipping off of their faces. "All the other doctors? Thought we were supposed to be figuring out what happened."

"We're celebrating Shane." Rick admonished. "Don't need to do this now."

Shane raised a challenging eyebrow, "Wait a second, that is why we're here isn't it?" He glanced around at everyone, then back to Rick, "This was your move wasn't it? You know find all the answers, instead, we find him. One man. Why?"

"Well when things got bad a lot of people just left." Jenner began, his voice soft as he recalled the events of the beginning of this mess. "Went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, military got overrun, the rest bolted."

"Every last one of them?" Shane challenged.

Jenner shook his head, "No. Many couldn't face walking out the door. They…opted out." Everyone shifted uneasily at the news, "There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."

"You didn't leave." Andrea pointed out. "Why?"

"I just kept working." He explained with a shrug. "Hoping to do some good."

"Dude, you are such a buzz kill man." Glenn groaned shooting a glare towards Shane. Sunny couldn't help but silently agree him.

* * *

**So I'm posting this chapter early in celebration! I just finished writing up to the season 1 finale, and I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but whenever I try to write fanfiction for this show I always get stuck at the season finale and just can't finish it and just scratch the idea all together, so finishing it gives me a sense of satisfaction.**

**Anyways, as always, hope you guys liked the chapter leave a review to let me know what you think!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Ooh Child Things'll Get Better: Chapter 6**

Sunny stuck close to her dad as Jenner led them down one of the many hallways they had at the C.D.C. Most of the lights were off making it a little darker than what she was used too, but Jenner said there were rooms for them to sleep in this way.

"Most of the facilities powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here." He explained. Sunny glanced into one of the rooms to see what looked like a sitting room. She wasn't really sure what the rooms were for, but considering she hadn't been in a building that wasn't destroyed in some way in quite some time she was happy to 'make do' as Jenner said. "Couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you'd like." He added as an afterthought. More comfortable than the floor I bet. Sunny thought with a smile. She didn't mind sleeping on the floor to be honest, but she couldn't even remember the last time she'd slept on a cushion of any sort and she was not going to pass up the offer now. "There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy, just don't plug in the video games ok? Or anything that draws power." He smiled down at Sophia and Carl who were the closest to him, his eyes scanned for Sunny and when they landed on her, he gave her a smile too. "Same applies, if you use the shower go easy on the hot water." And with that he left them to find themselves a room.

"Hot water?" Glenn murmured in awe, as if Jesus Christ himself had come down from Heaven and told them all they could bathe in the Holy water of the Lord, and be blessed for all eternity.

"Think I can go to the game room?" Sunny asked excitedly turning to her dad.

He rolled his eyes at her, "Not until you've taken a shower, Lord knows when the last time you cleaned yourself in something besides a river or lake."

Sunny shot him a little glare, "Well, I used a bucket and a wash cloth once…" She grumbled at him.

Her dad just laughed and ruffled her hair. "You take a shower and then you can go play in the rec room 'till even I decide to go to bed."

Sunny's eyes widened in shock. Even after they had to leave their home her dad still insisted she go to sleep early, she'd never gotten to stay up late, and she wasn't about to give him the time to change his mind. "Okay!" She yelled and rushed into the nearest room.

"Oi! Sunny Rae!" Her dad called after her, not prepared for her to dart away so quickly. He sighed and rolled his eyes before giving the rest of the group a quick nod before following her in. He found her in the bathroom struggling to get the shirt off from over her head, her arms were all stuck, and her head was already below the neckline making it hard for her to see what she was doing. He couldn't help but laugh outright at her antics.

"Daddy! Don't laugh at me!" She whined at him. "It's not funny!"

He could just see her pout now, which had him laughing just a bit harder. "Ain't my fault you rushed in here and got all tangled, sides, you still need to come pick out something to sleep in."

"Help me?" She asked from under the shirt. He smiled down at her and helped her get her arms back into the sleeves, and then her head back through the neckline. "Why do I need to pick something out to sleep now? You said I get to stay up!" She accused.

"Calm down, calm down. Ya do, but I know you, yer dead weight once yer tired, gonna have to change ya myself. So do me a favor, and change into the clothes now." Sunny pursed her lips, but then nodded in agreement and ran back into the room the two of them would be staying in where her dad had left their bags. "Don't see why yer in such a hurry, the other kids probably have to take their own showers too."

"I wanna get in there first." She shrugged, "That way I know where all the cool things are."

Daryl just rolled his eyes, wondering if the other parents were going through the same thing as him. Probably no Carol, but maybe Rick and Lori. Sunny seemed to be competitive with Carl. "Well you just make sure you're thoroughly cleaned when you step out of that shower or I'm thowin' you back in, got it?" she giggled and nodded her head in agreement, she turned and this time walked into the bathroom, and carefully took off her clothes for her shower so she wouldn't get all caught up in them again.

The moment the warm water touched her skin, Sunny felt like she could melt. She hadn't felt anything like this in months, not even the little summer rains they had at the rock quarry could compare to this. She knew she shouldn't take too long since Jenner had told them to go easy on the hot water, but she couldn't help it! It felt so good, never mind the rec room she'd stay here all night if she could. With a sigh she reached up for the generic shampoo that'd been left in here for the workers and quickly got to work cleaning herself.

Reluctantly she stepped out of the warm shower and immediately began shivering, the air was freezing compared to the shower water, so she was quick to dry herself off and then slip into her pajamas which consisted of her one of her daddy's shirts that he hadn't ripped the sleeves off, and some loose shorts for underneath. Looking around in the drawers she finally found a comb. She'd have to dig around in her bag for a ponytail, but she was sure she'd find one.

She left the bathroom with a smile, reveling in the feeling of being clean. "All washed up?" Her dad asked looking up from their bags he was sorting, a bottle of what he'd been drinking earlier sitting next to him.

Sunny nodded her head and quickly dug through her bag to find the ponytail before her dad could get up and go take his own shower, "Help me with my hair?" She asked him just as he pushed himself up the floor.

His eyes narrowed in confusion as he looked down at her holding out the comb and ponytail in hand, looking up at him sweetly. "Thought you learned how to do that yerself at camp?" He mumbled.

Sunny shook her head, "Amy did it for me most of the time, sometimes Jacqui if Amy was busy. She said yours was sloppy and that she was in charge of doing it now, but she's gone and I don't know where Jacqui is…" She trailed off and looked back up at her dad hopefully.

With a sigh he sat himself down on the couch and pointed at the spot in front of him, "Fine, but yer gonna have to learn how to do this shit yerself eventually, can't be doin' this forever."

With a smile she rushed over to him and pushed the hair things into his hands before sitting down with her back to him. He always told her she had to learn to do her hair by herself whenever he had to help her with it. When she was in first grade all the other little girls would braid their hair, so she'd asked her dad if he would help her. He hated it at first, grumbling the entire time as he tried to twist the hair the way she wanted. Merle would always be in the background laughing his ass off callin' him a pussy, he's always grab the closest thing to him and lob it at his head, sometimes hitting him, sometimes missing, but he still never told her no.

"There ya go." He mumbled as he finished tying the hair off.

Sunny reached back to feel the braid and couldn't help but smile at the difference between her dad's braid and Amy's. Where her braids were neat, even, and tightly held together, her dads were messy, the pieces weren't divided evenly, and she could tell once her hair dried little strands of hair would fall out of the braid, but she couldn't help but love it. "Thank you daddy!" She told him happily as she turned around and kissed him on the cheek like she always did after he helped her with the hair.

Daryl rolled his eyes but smiled at her none the less, "Alright, go on, get outta here. I know you wanna go to that game room. I'll come by later to get you."

"You said I can stay up as late as you!" She reminded him.

"Yeah but the other kids can't." She frowned at that, she hadn't really thought about it, she'd been too excited that she'd been allowed to stay up later. "Fine." She grumbled, and then quickly got up and ran out the door in search of the rec room.

It wasn't too far from where she and her dad would be sleeping, so that was a good thing. She was also the first person in there, giving her the time to explore it before Sophia and Carl came in.

While rooting around the board games she'd finally come across the thing she had been looking for just as Carl, Sophia and her mom came in. "Hey Sunny!" Sophia greeted her cheerfully, "What's that?" She asked pointing at the small deck of cards in her hands.

"Playing cards." Sunny grinned holding them up, "Thought we could play poker."

Carl and Sophia glanced at one another uneasily before looking back at the other girl. "We don't know how to play." Sophia explained.

"Plus we don't have anything to bet with. That's what you do in poker right? Make bets?" Carl added.

Sunny frowned in thought before turning back to the board games and pulled out the one she'd been looking for, "We can bet with this!" She told them holding out the little stacks of monopoly money, "And I can teach you guys how to play, Uncle Merle taught me, so I'm the next best person to teach you!"

* * *

Daryl walked into the rec room and had to blink his eyes to make sure what he saw was real. "That's not a royal flush Carl." Sunny explained, her voice exasperated while Carl stared down at his hand confused, Sophia giggling at the two with her cards covering her face to hide her laughter.

"How come?" Carl demanded, he was so sure he had it this time.

Daryl turned to see Lori and Carol sitting on one of the couches chatting quietly while the three kids continued their card game. "Is Sunny tryin' ta teach them how to play poker?" He as quietly so as not to distract the three children.

Lori and Carol stopped their chatter as they turned their attention to Daryl. "She's quite good at it." Carol told him with a soft smile.

He snorted out a laugh, "Merle used to watch her for me when I was out at work, and she didn't have school. Taught her everything she knows 'bout the game, feel bad for the other two."

"And why's that?" Lori asked with a raised eyebrow.

Daryl shrugged, "Merle's been in and out of jail most of his life, learned his way around a deck of cards, decided to 'pass his wisdom' onto her. She got so good even he couldn't figure out if she was cheating, swindled him out of all the cookies."

Carol laughed softly, "Sounds like he was good with her."  
Again Daryl could only shrug. "He never wanted to have kids, didn't like the idea of the responsibility. Guess being an Uncle s'more his thing. All the perks of having a kid, without the actual responsibility."

"Carl that's not how that works!" Sunny groaned as Carl yet again tried to play a hand that just wasn't right.

Daryl chuckled and shook his head, "C'mon Sunny Rae, ya can teach these two city slickers how to play another day."

Sunny let out a groan, "But they're not even going to bed yet!"

"Actually," Carol sighed as she pushed herself up from her spot on one of the couches, "they are. C'mon kids." She beckoned.

Carl and Sophia groaned, but passed Sunny their cards anyways. She quickly put them back in their box before getting up and following them to the door where her dad stood waiting for her.

"Baby go say your prayers, I'm gonna browse a bit." Lori told Carl while walking over towards the bookshelf.

"C'mon, ya can read for a little 'fore you go to sleep." Her dad told her as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and led her down the hall towards their room. "What book you reading again? Know you finished that other one back at camp."

"Was gonna read Lord of the Rings." She told him, instantly another thought popped into her head, "But I saw a book in the rec room that's supposed to take place before it! Can I go get it real quick?" She asked him.

He chuckled at her slip of thought and nodded his head, "You know how to get back to our room right?"

"Yup!" She told him excitedly.

"Alright then, hurry up." He told her as he nudged her back towards the rec room.

Sunny grinned as she ran back down the hall, but frowned when she noticed the door was closed, she was pretty sure it had been open when they left, unless Lori closed it after she left. That was probably it.

Pushing the door open she wasn't prepared to see Lori and Shane in the room, let alone see Lori trying to push Shane away while he tried to kiss her. Sunny was confused, Lori was Carl's mom and married to Rick, and Shane was Rick's best friend, why was he trying to kiss her? Plus it didn't look like she wanted to kiss him, so why was he trying to make her?

Finally a loud shout shocked her out of her racing thoughts, causing her to gasp loudly. The two adults turned to see her standing there with wide eyes.

"Sunny…" Lori breathed. She seemed shocked and just as confused as Sunny, but Shane… Shane looked mad.

His eyes darkened as the narrowed on her, "You little shit…" He growled as he stormed towards her. Sunny took an uneasy step back, not really sure what was going on.

"Shane leave her alone!" Lori cried out as she grabbed onto his arm to hold him back, "Sunny go!"

Without a second thought Sunny turned and sprinted out the door, and back towards her room where her dad was, completely forgetting the book she was supposed to be getting. Her dad would protect her, he wouldn't let Shane hurt her.

"Come back here!" Shane shouted after her. It wasn't too far behind her, which encouraged her to push her little legs to go faster.

Finally the door to their room came into view and luckily for her it was already open, so with one last push she dashed into the room and slammed the door shut behind her. "Took ya long enough." Her dad chuckled as he came out of the bathroom. His smile dropped as Sunny rammed herself into his legs and held on for dear life. "What the-? Sunny, what's wrong?" He demanded as he crouched down so he could look into her eyes. "Where's your book? What happened?"

"I-I was gon get it, but, but Sh-Shane an Lori was in there. And, and he was tryin' ta kiss her! But she didn't wanna kiss him I think, and she-she hit him I think, an then he saw me, an' got real mad." She told him her voice quivering.

Before Daryl could even react to her words there was a loud bang on the door. He glared over at it while Sunny cowered away from it, trying to be as close as possible to her dad. "Go in the bathroom, lock the door, and don't come out till I tell you, okay?" He told her gently, his glare still on the door. Another harsh bang sounded throughout the room.

"What are you gonna-?"

"Don't you worry about that." He told her gently. "I'm gonna make sure he don't ever try to scare or hurt you again, 'kay?" She nodded her head quietly, "Go on now, in the bathroom and lock the door. Don't come out till I tell you to."

He waited until she was in the bathroom, and the click of the lock sounded before he made his way over to the door. He flung it open and immediately swung a punch right into an unsuspecting Shane's gut. The man grunted and stumbled back into the hallway, "What the hell." He gasped.

"That's for scarin' my kid." Daryl growled as he stepped into the hallway.

"Your little brat was spyin'-" He tried to argue, but Daryl kicked him in the side.

"She was going to get a fuckin' book!" He corrected. "An you was in there trying to force yerself on another woman!" He spat at the other man. He kicked out with his foot again, this time hitting Shane in the shoulder causing him to fall down again, "You try to hurt my kid again, hell if you even look at her wrong, I'll fucking stomp your ass, ya hear me!?" He demanded.

Shane finally managed to push himself up off the ground, and glare at the redneck. He usually wouldn't back down from a fight with him, but tonight he was thoroughly intoxicated, and something told him that even though Daryl had had his fair share of alcohol that night, he still wouldn't be able to beat the redneck in a fight. "Whatever." He growled, "Keep that little shit away from me."

Daryl shook his head in disgust, and waited until Shane was out of sight before he went back into his room and shut the door. He moved one of the pieces of furniture in front of the door to give Sunny a better sense of security before he walked over to the bathroom door and knocked gently. "It's me Sunny Rae, you can come out now, he's gone."

There was silence for a moment before he could hear shuffling on the other side and finally the click of the lock as she slowly opened the door to peek out at him. "Ya sure?" She asked him timidly.

"Yeah, and he ain't gonna bother us if he knows what's good for him." He reassured her. With that she flung herself out of the bathroom and into his arms. Carefully he scooped her up into his arms and went to lay down on the couch. He was going to let her sleep on it while he slept on one of the extra cots, but he figured if he didn't share the couch with her she'd be more likely to have nightmares tonight. "Shh, it's okay. Shh, I got you, don't worry. I'm here Sunny Rae, he ain't gonna hurt ya, I swear." Slowly she fell asleep to her father's reassuring words.

Once he was sure she was asleep he sighed. He was pissed. No. He was more than pissed, he was furious. This was the second time Shane had hurt his little girl, and the worst part was he couldn't do too much about it, not yet at least. Shane would deny tonight ever happened, and he knew Lori wouldn't say anything about it either, she'd want to brush it under a rug and forget about it, but he wouldn't. No, he'd wait until Shane messed up in front of everyone, then he'd make him hurt far worse than he did tonight. He sighed once more, and gently kissed Sunny's forehead. He'd make Shane pay. He vowed silently to Sunny. For now he'd play nice, but Shane would pay.

* * *

**So yeah, Shane being a dick... but yeah next chapter's gonna be the finale! I get more internet tomorrow so that'll be good! I'm working on season 2 right now,so I might take a brake from posting after the season 1 finale so that I can get some more writing done, but we'll just have to see where it goes! Thanks for reading! **


	7. Chapter 7

**Ooh Child Things'll Get Brighter: Chapter 7; Season 1 Finale**

Sunny woke up the next morning curled up on her dad's chest where she remembered falling asleep the night before while he'd been soothing her. She'd been terrified the entire time she was locked in the bathroom. Wondering what would happen to Shane, to her dad. It wasn't until she heard his voice through the door that her panic ceased and relief swept through her like a tidal wave.

Now that her head was clear, she wondered what had happened to Shane. Her dad didn't look hurt at all, at least from what she could remember, and she'd heard shouting, though she hadn't been able to make out the words.

"You awake?" She looked up to see her dad tiredly blinking his eyes open. He yawned and sat up, setting her on the couch beside him as he stretched, "C'mon let's get some breakfast." He stood up and started walking towards the door when he realized she wasn't following him. Glancing back he saw her still sitting on the couch with wide eyes. It was enough to make him remember what happened the previous night. Slowly he walked back over to her and knelt on the ground in front of her, resting his hands on her knees and looking into her eyes. "He ain't gonna hurt you, thought I told you that last night." He explained softly.

Sunny took a deep breath, and nodded her head before slowly slipping off the couch. Her dad stood up beside her and led the way over to the door. He pushed the piece of furniture that he'd put in front of the door the night before out of the way before leading her down the hall way towards the kitchen where they'd all eaten dinner the night before. Everyone was gathered around the table eating what looked like eggs. She glanced wearily over in Shane's direction but he wouldn't even look their way. She was glad about that, she didn't want to look at him, didn't want to remember how scary he'd been. Not when he'd used to be nice. Yeah he'd never really liked her family, cause of her Uncle, but he'd never been mean either. Thanked 'em for the meat they caught for camp, and gave them their space. However, since Rick had returned from the city with the others he acted different, and Sunny just didn't like it.

Her dad refused to be anywhere near the other man, finding them a spot at the opposite end of the table he sat in the remaining chair and pulled Sunny onto his lap, grunting in thanks when T-Dog and Jacqui brought them over a plate of eggs with toast and some juice for each of them.

Everyone ate in silence, with the exception of Glenn who groaned every once in a while, or mumbling about never drinking again. Besides that, everyone seemed tense, Jenner sat at the table just staring off into space ignoring the looks some of the group sent his way, apparently she and her dad had missed something before they'd come in.

Once everyone finished eating Jenner stood up, "Come, I'll try to explain as best as I can." He told them before leading them back to the room where he'd told them he was the only one left. She followed her dad into the room and off to the side as they watched Jenner type on his computer, "Give me a playback of TS-19" He asked VI.

The big screen in front of them lit up as VI's mechanical voice replied, "Play back of TS-19"

"Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few." Jenner explained as he turned away from the computer towards the rest of them. Sunny watched in fascination as the screen showed a human, and then into the human, to its brain. "Take us in for IV." Jenner commanded again.

"Enhanced internal view." VI replied. The screen shifted turning to look at the human brain from the side before zooming in.

Everyone was silent as they watched the screen change until finally they were watching little lights move along what looked like little cords. Sunny knew they were still looking at a brain, she just didn't know what was happening. "What are those lights?" Shane asked. Sunny was glad she wasn't the only one who didn't know what they were, but couldn't help but cringe at the sound of his voice.

A smile seemed to grow on Jenner's face as he looked at the screen, "It's a person's life. Experiences, memories, it's everything. Somewhere in that organic wiring, in those little balls of light, is you. The thing that makes you unique, and human." Sunny smiled at that, those pretty lights were in her head. She sort of understood what Jenner was saying, but not really at the same time. That was how her brain worked.

"You don't make sense ever?" Her dad asked, not really understanding Jenner like she did.

"Those are synapses." Jenner elaborated. "Electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does or thinks from birth until death." Sunny preferred his first explanation compared to this one. It sounded much more pleasant.

"Death?" Rick asked walking forward, "That what this is? A vigil?"

"Yes." Jenner told him, never taking his eyes off the screen. He looked so sad despite the smile, as if he were remembering something that made him happy that couldn't anymore. "Or rather the play back of the vigil."

"This person died? Who?" Andrea asked sadly, she too keeping her eyes on the screen. It seemed like everyone was entranced by it.

"Test Subject Nineteen." Jenner told her. "Someone who was bitten, infected, and volunteered to have us record the process." He paused for a moment, his smile fading away. "VI, scan forward to the first event." He commanded.

"Scanning to first event."

Sunny's small smile faded as she watched the pretty lights fade, the brain turning black. It made her sad. In the place of the pretty lights was this dark mass that slowly pushed the lights out until it went dark. "It's like meningitis, it invades the brain." Jenner explained for them all. Sunny didn't really know what meningitis was, but obviously not good if it made the lights go away. "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, and then the major organs, then death. Everything you ever were or will be, gone." Sunny tucked her head into her dad's side as she tried to stop her tears, his arm came up around her shoulders and gently rubbed her back. "Scan to second event." Jenner called out.

"Scanning to second event."

Sunny turned her head back to face the screen, she was sad, but she wanted to know what happened next. "The resurrection times vary wildly, we have reports of it happening in as little as three minutes, the longest we heard of was eight hours, in the case of this patient it was, two hours, one minute, and seven seconds." Slowly the dark brain on the screen started to light up again, not like the first time however. No this time it wasn't as pretty. Before the lights had been white, the little tubes were a pretty blue color, now the tubes were still dark, and the lights were a reddish color. They didn't extend to the rest of the brain, mainly keeping to the back and bottom parts.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked in disbelief.

Jenner shook his head, "No, only the brain stem. Basically it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive?" Rick clarified.

"You tell me." Jenner told him pointing at the screen. The lights weren't bright anymore, nor did they go all throughout the brain. No, Sunny decided, they're not alive.

"It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark." Rick's words echoed Sunny's thoughts.

"Dark, lifeless, dead." Jenner agreed. "The frontal lobe, the neocoretex, the human part, that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct."

Something suddenly flew through the head causing Sunny to jump as it created what looked like a tunnel in the head. The dimmer lights stopped much like before and TS-19 stopped moving. "Oh god!" Andrea gasped.

"What was that?" Carol asked.

"He shot his patient in the head." Andrea explained in realization. "Didn't you?"

"VI power down the main screen and the work stations." Jenner instructed, ignoring Andrea's question.

"Powering down main screen and work stations."

"You have no idea what it is do you?" Andrea accused.

Jenner glanced over at her, "It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal…"

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui asked with a straight face.

"There's that." Jenner agreed.

"Somebody must know something." Andrea insisted. "Somebody, somewhere."

"There are others right?" Carol pleaded. "Other facilities?"

"There may be some. People like me." Jenner agreed though he didn't sound too confident in that statement.

"But you don't know? How can you not know?" Rick demanded.

"Everything went down, communications, directive, all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month." Jenner explained.

"So it's not just here?" Andrea asked wanting to understand the situation they were in. "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing. That's what you're really saying right?" Jenner seemed to be clamming up. Not really wanting to answer their questions.

Everyone took his silence for confirmation, Sunny felt another tear slip down her cheek. Her dad let out a heavy sigh and reached down to pick her up. "Jesus Christ…" He muttered angrily.

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you, and I hate to ask one more question, but that clock is counting down," Dale explained drawing everyone's attention to the red numbers counting down in the corner, "What happens at zero?" Sunny lifted her head off her dad's shoulder to look at the clock Dale was talking about. He was right it was counting down, currently reading one hour.

Jenner paused, staring at the clock while everyone looked to him for answers, "The…basement generators they run out of fuel." He told them quickly, too quickly. It was the fastest Sunny had heard him say anything.

"And then?" Rick asked. But Jenner wouldn't answer, instead he walked off leaving them in the main room wondering about what would happen. "VI, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick demanded, hoping to get answers for the computer.

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." Came the computerized voice. Sunny looked to the others, she didn't understand. Was that bad? Good? What? The others however, looked just as confused as she.

* * *

Rick, Shane, T-Dog, and Glenn decided they would go down to the basement to investigate how much fuel was left, and perhaps if they could find more, while the rest of them were instructed to go back to their rooms, and wait for the verdict.

"Pack your shit Sunny, I have a feelin' we're gon need to get outta here fast." Her dad explained as they walked into their room.

"'Kay!" She agreed and ran over to her bag and began reorganizing it. There wasn't much, the group that had gone out to get bags the other night had only been able to grab what they could in one trip while still having to keep an extra hand free to hold their weapons in case of walkers. Most of what they had used while being here had come from the building and those who'd previously been in the rooms.

They both looked up startled when the air kicked off. Before it had been pretty steady since they were underground and there was no way they could get air from the outside without it. Next the lights went out leaving them in the dark room.

She followed her dad to their door, peeking her head out to see the others looking out too. The lights in the hallway still worked, not the big overhead ones, but a few along the walls, they were much dimmer than the others. "What's going on?" Someone asked down the hall. She turned her head to see Jenner walking towards them in his lab coat.

"What happened to the lights?" Another asked.

"And the air?"

"What's going on?" Her dad demanded as Jenner walked by.

"Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner explained briskly.

"Air isn't a priority?" Dale asked incredulously. "And lights?"

"It isn't up to me. Zone five is shutting itself down." Jenner shrugged, taking a big gulp of the drink he was holding.

"Oi! What the hell does that mean?" Her dad demanded as he took off after Jenner, his long legs able to keep in stride with him while Sunny hung towards the back of the group with Carol and Sophia as they headed back out towards the main screen where they'd just come from. "Hey man I'm talking to you!" Her dad growled as he caught up with the doctor. "How the hell does a building shut itself down!?"

"You'd be surprised." Jenner told him indifferently.

As they reached the main room, Rick, Shane, T-Dog, and Glenn came in to meet them. "Jenner!" Rick called out as he ran over to the doctor. "What's happening?" He demanded.

"The system is dropping the nonessential usages of power." Jenner explained yet again while being vague. He seemed to be dodging all the real answers. "It's designed to keep the computers running until the last possible second. It starts as we reach the half an hour mark. Right on schedule." He pointed over to where the clock Dale had asked about earlier was. Everyone stopped, waiting for him to explain further. He sighed and turned to face them. "It was the French, they were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways they stayed in the lab till the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

"What happened?" Jacqui asked wanting clarification.

"Same thing that's happening here." Jenner shrugged, "No power grid. Ran out of juice." He continued on explaining since no one seemed to be understanding him, "The world runs on fossil fuel. How stupid is that?" He turned away from them all and went to sit at his desk to turn on the computer. Shane and Rick and the rest following after him. Sunny stayed back though, she didn't want to go up there, she wanted to go back to her room, get her things and just leave.

"Lori grab our things, everyone get your stuff we're getting out of here, now!" Rick told them. Happy to finally have permission to do just what she wanted Sunny bolted out the doors, ignoring the sounds of the blaring alarms, and the flashing lights as she made her way back to her and her dad's room. She didn't pay attention to the sound of the mechanical whoosh, nor the yells of everyone else. She only concentrated on where she was running in the dim lighted hallway so that she wouldn't trip over anything.

Bursting into her room she was quick to pick up her bag and turn around to see her dad come in through the door after her, only… he wasn't behind her. In fact, besides the sounds of the alarms, and the flashing lights she saw nothing, heard no one, nor their footsteps like she should have.

Her eyes widened as she rushed to the open door and stuck her head out. No one was around, a loud, blaring alarm was going off, some of the lights flashing red, it was scary to say the least. Blinking back tears she ran back to the room with the main screen, but let out an anguished cry as she saw the doors closed before her. How could she not realized the others weren't behind her!? _How_!?

She let out a scream as she dropped her bag on the ground and began pounding on the door, praying it would open, "Daddy!" She screamed out. "Daddy! Open the door! Daddy! Please!" She could feel the hot tears run down her face blurring her vision. What did she do!? Everyone she knew and loved was on the other side of that door! Why was it even closed in the first place? She gave one last cry before she fell to the floor in front of the steel door and sobbed.

* * *

Daryl watched in horror as a steel door came down and blocked them all off from the hallway that lead to the rest of the facility. Alarms were going off all around him, lights were flashing, and everyone was panicking. "No…" He whispered. "No!" He screamed as he ran to the sealed doors. The doors that were trapping them here. The doors that had separated him from his daughter. "No!" He turned back around to see Jenner in front of one of the computers, "Son of a bitch!" He screamed at the man as he rushed towards him, "You locked us in here! You locked her out! My daughter! Give me back my daughter!" He managed to grab the doctor by the shoulder and yank him back before he felt someone else come up behind him and haul him away. "Give her back! Give me back my Sunny Rae!" He continued to scream. He felt another push him back, continuous cries of 'no!' and 'don't do it!' came from all around him, but he didn't care. His daughter was on the other side of that door without him. All alone and probably scared as hell. He tore away from the others grip and rushed over to the doors. He started punching them, kicking them, anything he could do to get them to open. "Sunny!" He screamed out, "Sunny! I'm here! Daddy's here! Ain't gonna let nothin' hurt you, ya hear me!? Sunny!"

In the background he could here Jenner yelling at them all, about how this place was protecting the public. Well there wasn't no public now was there? So why couldn't he just open the damn door and let him get to his daughter!?

He stopped as VI's mechanic voice came out on the speaker, "H.I.T.'s. High Impulse Thermobaric fuel-air explosives are released which produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear."

"It sets the air on fire." Jenner simplified.

Daryl felt his face pale. They were about to be fucking blown up and he couldn't even hold his daughter in his arms, hell he couldn't even see her, comfort her. She was alone, and had no idea what was about to happen. No…He lashed out at the door once more, he wouldn't let it end like this! "Open the damn door!" He screamed at the doctor. He ignored him.

"Out of the way!" Shane yelled as he ran at the door with an axe. Sparks flew as the two metals collided.

"Daryl!" He caught the axe T-Dog tossed him and began hacking at the door along with Shane. The two kept hacking away yet nothing changed, not even a dent.

Shane told Rick as much. "Those door are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner explained as if it were common knowledge.

"Well your head ain't!" Daryl yelled as he ran up the stairs towards Jenner, axe ready to swing down on the man.

However before he could three different pairs of arms reached out to stop him, T-Dog coming up behind him to try and wrestle the axe away. "Back off!" Rick yelled at him.

"You do want this!" Jenner insisted. "Last night you said."

Daryl looked between Rick and the crazy doctor before shaking his head. He didn't give a shit what these two were talking about, all he wanted was his daughter and he wasn't going to waste precious time yappin'. He picked up Shane's forgotten axe and began hacking at the door again. Nothing would keep him from his daughter. Nothing. Not this steal door, and not that fucking crazy doctor. He began hacking at the door once more, ignoring everything around him.

It felt like ages as had gone by as he hacked at the door until finally, the mechanical hiss sounded, stopping his heart as he watched the door slide open. "Sunny!" He yelled. She was right there in front of the door all curled up in a ball as she sobbed, her backpack he'd brought in laying discarded beside her along with her bow and arrows.

She looked up at the call of her name, her eyes red and puffy, tears running down her cheeks, "Daddy?" Her voice quivered, she half thought she imagined his call, but there he was standing before her. "Daddy!" She cried out as she scrambled to push herself up. She didn't know who got to who first, all she knew that one second she was on the ground and the next in his arms.

"Let's move!" Rick shouted from behind them, others echoing his words as they all scrambled to escape their impending doom. Daryl reached down and snatched Sunny's things off the ground, refusing to allow her out of his arms. Once he had her things he sprinted after the others towards their rooms. Grabbing what they could, Daryl only taking the time to grab his crossbow and re position Sunny and her belongings in his arms, they rushed back up the stairs, they only had minutes before this place exploded and they'd already had to leave Jacqui, Andrea, and Dale behind.

Sprinting into the main lobby they tried to force the doors they had come in through open but they wouldn't budge, "The window!" Someone shouted. Daryl carefully set Sunny down and began hacking at the window with the axe much like he'd done with the metal door before. T-Dog tried to use a metal chair, while Shane tried to blast it open with his gun, but the only result they got was little cracks in the glass.

"Rick!" Carol called out as she ran up to him pulling her bag open, "I have something that might help."

"Carol I don't think a nail file is gonna do it." Shane bit sarcastically.

She ignored him and rooted through the bag, pulling out a little black ball she held it out to Rick. "Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket."

Rick stared at for a moment in complete shock before he took it from here, "Look out!" He shouted as he ran towards the window.

Daryl seeing what was in his hand immediately rushed over to Sunny and pulled her further back and covered her body with his own. It took only moments to detonate after Rick pulled the pin, sending glass everywhere with a loud bang. But it worked. It fucking worked.

"Let's go Sunny Rae." He mumbled as he picked her up and ran towards the window and jumped out. There were a few walkers lingering around, drawn towards their direction due to the small explosion. He'd need both his hands to take care of them. Gently he set Sunny on her feet, "Stay right behind me, you hear? Right behind me!" Sunny nodded her head and did as he told her as he, Rick, and Shane cleared a path back to the vehicles.

The moment they reached the truck Daryl practically tossed her in, her bag and the rest of their belongings falling to the floor as he scrambled in after her. He pulled the keys out from where he had left them and raced to start the car, they had to get as far from the blast as possible.

He looked up when he heard the sound of the RV's horn honking and saw Dale and Andrea there running as fast as they could towards the caravan, the C.D.C behind them beginning the process of 'decontamination'. Without thinking he grabbed Sunny and pulled her down on the seat and put himself between her, and where the explosion would be coming from. They could still be too close, the shock-wave could shatter the windshield, hundreds of possibilities went through his head as the sound of the explosion went off. The boom was deafening, the shock wave shaking their truck, and the heat of the explosion caused a trickle of sweat to drip down his forehead. And just like that, it was over. Their once beacon of hope, now a burning pile of rubble.

Slowly Daryl sat up, allowing Sunny to do the same as he stared at the C.D.C in a sort of daze. They had almost been in there, but by some miracle they'd escaped, they'd survived. He glanced down at his daughter, seeing her stare at the burning rubble with the same expression, he realized just how close he was to losing her today. The guilt and fear was so overwhelming he had to close his eyes for a moment and take a deep breath. Exhaling he reached out and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms tightly around her he leaned down and kissed her head. "I love you." He murmured. "I love you so much, don't you ever forget that Sunny Rae. Not a second goes by where I don't love you." He kissed her head once more and pressed his head against her own. Comforting himself with her presence. She was alive, still in his arms. Safe.

"I love you too daddy." She mumbled.

They stayed like that for a moment before the other cars started up signaling it was time to move on. Time to put this fucking nightmare behind them. Time to find another place, somewhere they could be safe, somewhere they could call home.

* * *

**Ok so yay finale! I'm gonna take a break from posting because I'm having trouble with season two right now, like so much happens just right off the bat and I'm having trouble writing it, so I'm just going to take my time with that try to write a little bit everyday. Once I've got most of season 2 written I'll probably start posting again, but until then, just a little break.**

**Thanks for reading though, or leaving reviews, they really do encourage me to write! Give me your thoughts and ideas for season 2! I have a lot of the story mapped out, but I love hearing other people's ideas so don't be afraid to share them! **


End file.
